In honor of Saturday’s anniversary of the 1906 Earthquake, I’m devoting each blog post this week to survivor stories. Today is the LAST DAY to enter the giveaway for my two novels based during the disaster, Out of the Ruins and Beyond the Ashes. Don’t miss the information at the bottom of this post. The contests will close at 8 AM Pacific time on Saturday, April 18, 2015. I’ll announce the winners shortly after that. (You can find links to the previous posts in the series at the bottom).
As the firefighters finally got the upper hand on the flames, the citizens of San Francisco had the opportunity to draw a breath and look around. With 225,000 people left homeless (from a population of about 400,000), the challenge of caring for the refugees seemed overwhelming. Many had fled the city, but others camped in city parks and vacant lots. The army and Red Cross stepped in to help with tents, food, and medical supplies. The rich and the poor all found themselves in need, living side-by-side. The rest of the nation was captivated by the newspaper stories and donations rolled in. And, as always seems to happen during a major crisis–good people stepped up to help one another.
Here are a few of the eyewitness accounts of the days that followed. I find it interesting that most of the camp recollections came from women, whereas the men’s accounts focused more on descriptions of the destruction.
Emma M. Burke (wife of San Francisco attorney Bart Burke): The next day we learned that my husband’s law library was burned. Did we feel regret? No! We simply did not have time. We were now drawing rations, and suffering for nothing but bread. I had a gift of twenty loaves from out of town. I went through the Park giving it away. I found a very genteel Spanish woman, a former music-teacher, who had only one blanket for cover, one sheet for a screen against the weather, one utensil for cooking, an iron pot, and very few clothes.
Her long black hair had not been combed since the earthquake, but she had a smile, and insisted on dividing with me the meat she had just cooked, I took her to our flat, and fitted her out with the most primitive accessories.
Mrs. James T. Watkins: Yesterday I walked down through the nearest camp. It covers about half a mile and is a comparatively small one. It is about a mile away from here on the water front, and in full view from our hill. Thousands of tents have been sent and distributed. The parks, the cemeteries and the Presidio, are full of campers, but they are too far for me to go. The cemetery vaults have been broken up, and people are sleeping in them. The city records have been stored in the vaults of the crematory, with soldiers guarding them.
The people in these low, shelter tents are cheerful and uncomplaining. It is wonderful, wonderful. Forty babies
were born in the Park in one night. One case was triplets. Many emergency Hospitals have been started, in barns, churches, etc. I spend much of my time at the headquarters of the Red Cross and the Doctors’ Daughters. Jim is busy all day with Red Cross work. It is all charity. No Doctor charges anything these days.
The people are wonderful, wonderful. One woman, seeing my Red Cross badge, stopped me in the street to ask help — not for herself but others. She was camping in the park, and had lost everything except the clothes she wore, including her husband whom she had not been able to locate since the earthquake, a week ago. But she asked me for a pair of shoes for an old lady and underclothes for a child.
Louise Herrick Wall: On this tenth day from the fire the park showed hundreds of acres of lawn covered with well-arranged tents set among the blooming roses and flowering shrubs of the park’s conventional flower beds. The shadow of leaves plays on clean canvas, and rescued canaries hat at the tent-peaks chirping contentment. Here and there a hurrying load of furniture or a laden foot-passenger recalls the exodus of a few days before, but these grow hourly more unusual.
Howard T. Livingston: I remember that people talked about the automobile and the part it had played during the crisis, Before the fire most of us had thought of the car as a wealthy man’s plaything and one of doubtful reliability. The fire-fighting had demanded the use of all available vehicles-horse-drawn and mechanical–and most of the automobiles in San Francisco, including new ones still in dealers’ showrooms, had been pressed into service, Cars quickly proved their superiority to horses. They were much faster and could be operated twenty-four hours a day. I often heard it said that the San Francisco fire of 1906 established the reliability of the automobile.
In my series about the disaster, The Golden Gate Chronicles, I chose to focus on two camps for the sake of simplicity: Golden Gate Park and the Presidio. In reality, camps and refuges sprang up all over the city. Here’s a glimpse into camp life from Out of the Ruins. (I edited a few lines out to avoid spoilers).
Robert frowned
as he stared out at the sea of people, the scent of smoke clinging to his clothes. Clambering up onto a stone bench, he drew a hand over his brow to shade his eyes against the rising sun. He’d already made a circuit of the park, but now that every square foot seemed to be occupied, finding anything or anyone seemed unlikely.
More refugees had arrived during the night, piling their belongings on every scrap of open ground, sleeping wherever they could. Barking dogs growled and snatched at foodstuffs left unprotected.
Robert shouldered his pack, loaded with the few supplies he’d scavenged from Abby’s ruined campsite. Where had she gone? Where was she now?
He turned, bracing his knee against the back of the bench, peering across the crowd, looking for a familiar straw hat with green ribbons. To the east, the lines of army tents multiplied, a sign of order being restored in the midst of chaos.
I’m very excited for tomorrow! In honor of the official anniversary of the Great San Francisco Earthquake (April 18, 1906), I’ll have several special treats for you on the blog.
- I’ll announce who wins Out of the Ruins, my novel set during the 1906 earthquake
- One lucky reader and newsletter subscriber will win an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of Beyond the Ashes, which releases June 16.
- We’ll take a look at some eyewitness accounts of the famous earthquake shacks and San Francisco on the mend.
- I’ll give you a special sneak peek into Beyond the Ashes, recently awarded 4-stars by RT Times: “Barnett brings to life the devastation of a major earthquake, but adds a unique twist.”
If you still need to enter either giveaway, here’s how you can do so. [UPDATE: BOTH CONTESTS NOW CLOSED.] To enter to win Out of the Ruins, the Rafflecopter form is below. If you’d like to enter to win Beyond the Ashes, you need to subscribe to my e-newsletter. You can find the subscription form on the righthand side of my website. Afterward, you’ll need to locate the confirmation email (might land in your JUNK mail) and follow the instructions to confirm your address. The contest for both giveaways closes at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 18, 2015, and I’ll post the winners shortly afteward.
Would you like to catch up on the rest of the parts of this blog series? Here are the links.
- Introduction
- Part 1: The Shaking Begins
- Part 2: Searching for Safety
- Part 3: Feeling the Heat
- Part 4: The Days That Followed
- Part 5: Up from the Ashes
For those of you who live in San Francisco, is anyone getting up early for the remembrance at Lotta’s Fountain? Unfortunately, I live too far away. Maybe I’ll set my alarm for 5:12 a.m. and get up, anyway. Hmmm. Probably not!
See you tomorrow!
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