Remembering the 1906 Earthquake: The Shaking Begins

Many people have asked what inspired me to write a novel about the 1906 earthquake. The answer is simple. The stories.

I love historical documentaries and when I watched American Experience: The Great San Francisco Earthquake, I was gripped by the stories told by elderly survivors. They’d all been children at the time, but their memories were vivid and compelling–haunting me for months afterward.

I looked up more survivor stories in books and online. Here are a few of my favorites, including links to more information. Each of these describe the first moments of the quake, 5:12 a.m on April 18, 1906.

Mrs. James T. Watkins: I was wakened by the crash of falling furniture, and a rocking, heaving house. Jim was sleeping in the next room, but I am used to slight earthquake shocks, so I lay still.

. . . I felt very calm, paralyzed perhaps, but I thought, ‘This is the worst thing I ever knew, and we may be going to be killed, and I want to die together.’ It was as much as I could do to walk across the floor, because it heaved so, and it made me very sea-sick. Jim always wakes slowly and dazed, and when I opened the door he thought the walls were falling in.

Lloyd Head, Roosevelt Boy’s Club: . . . backwards, forwards, sidewards it shook, making things dance on the bureau as if they were alive, while the dishes in the pantry and the China closet rattled about at a great rate. I guess no one had time to think what had happened, at least I didn’t. I just held on to [the] side of the bed to keep from falling out and ducked my head in the pillow, for I was so scared I couldn’t even yell.

Arnold Genthe, Photographer:  It seemed as if I had scarcely been asleep when I was awakened by a terrifying sound–the Chinese porcelains that I had been collecting in the last years had crashed to the floor. The whole house was creaking and shaking, the chandelier was swinging like a pendulum, and I felt as if I were on a ship tossed about by a rough sea. ‘This can’t go on much longer,’ I said to myself. ‘When a house shakes like this, the ceiling is bound to collapse. As soon as the plaster begins to fall, I’ll cover my head and accept what comes.’

Donaldina Cameron, Missionary (Historical figure who also appears in Out of the Ruins): During the never-to-be-forgotten moments the solid earth took on the motions of an angry ocean while chimneys crashed on to our roof, while plaster and ornaments strewed the floors. There was terror and consternation among the fifty Chinese and Japanese girls and children in the Home, but not one symptom of panic, or of cowardice. Older girls forgot their own fears in anxiety to care for and soothe the little ones. Not one attempted to seek safety alone. All stood to their duty like little soldiers— a miniature performance of the Birkenhead Drill, for everyone believed her last moment had come.

These were exciting scenes to write in Out of the Ruins because there was so much to work with. Here’s how each of my fictional main characters experienced the first moments of the quake.

Dr. Robert King (on early morning rounds at Lane Hospital):  A faint buzzing caught Robert’s attention. Searching for the source of the sound, his gaze settled on his coffee cup, vibrating on the bedside table.

Mrs. McCurty pushed up onto her elbows. “What is happening?”

The floor pulsed under Robert’s feet and he clutched the headboard with one hand. His chest tightened. “Only a little tremor . . . usually lasts just a few seconds.”

She glanced up at him, her green eyes widening . . .

Abby Fischer:  The bed shook and quivered, shifting across the wooden floor. Abby braced herself as the tremors multiplied, the low table scuttling away from the bed like a spider running from a rolled-up newspaper. A row of decorative glass bottles on the bookshelf provided music for their own strange dance, shivering and glancing off one another in an awkward rhythm.

With a sudden jerk, the bookcase teetered and the bottles crashed to the floor, books raining from the middle shelves. The rattling grew to a roar, like the sound of a locomotive puffing into the station. A deep groan cut through the air, as if the house complained about the movement.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these historical and fictional accounts of the earthquake. Tomorrow, I’ll delve into what happened after the shaking stopped. I hope you’ll join me!

In honor of this anniversary week, I’m hosting two separate giveaways. If you’d like to enter to win a copy of Out of the Ruins, book one of the Golden Gate Chronicles, you can find the entry form at the bottom of yesterday’s post. If you’d like to win an advance copy of Beyond the Ashes, Golden Gate Chronicles Book 2, you can enter by subscribing to my e-newsletter. You’ll find  subscription information on the right-hand side of my website, or on the top menu of my Facebook page. I’ll be choosing a winner for that giveaway tomorrow (Wednesday), so get your entry in now! [UPDATE: BOTH CONTESTS NOW CLOSED].

Have you lived through an earthquake, tornado, or other disaster? What’s your strongest memory of the event? Feel free to leave a brief description in the comments section. I’d love to hear your story.

Would you like to read the rest of the posts in this series? Here are the links to get you there.

• Introduction
• The Shaking Begins
• Searching for Safety
• Feeling the Heat
• The Days that Followed
• Up from the Ashes

See you tomorrow!