Miss Jo's San Francisco

TODAY’S THE 104th ANNIVERSARY OF THE GREAT SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE AND SUBSEQUENT FIRESTORM, which leveled the Golden Gate City and has shaped it ever since.

It’s a day to pay respect to those who survived and rebuilt the City, as well as to the unpredictable— but known— power of the San Andreas Fault, which Gray Brechin conjures up in his book Imperial San Francisco.

“As dawn broke on April 18, 1906, the Pacific tectonic plate suddenly lurched twenty-one feet near Tomales Bay, north of San Francisco. That movement released energy equivalent to an arsenal of hydrogen bombs,” wrote Brechin. “Energy moving out from the suture liquefied [land] all along the bay shore, including the inlets, swamps and creeks that San Franciscans had filled with sand and garbage” to build on.

Today is one of those postcard sunny San Francisco days, and like every year, there was a public commemoration downtown at Lotta’s Fountain @ 5:12 a.m., the time the quake hit. One of a few structures downtown that survived the devastation, the fountain served as a meeting point for survivors.

The quake remembrance next moved south of Market Street to the corner of Church and 20th streets, on a hill overlooking Dolores Park with the downtown skyline in the distance.

There, a fire hydrant got its annual fresh coat of gold paint, as a thanks for being the only fireplug to work in the city on that fateful 1906 day, giving firefighters the water  needed to save the Mission District.

Hours after the pre-dawn ceremonial painting, people were drawn to the hydrant for pictures.

After taking these snaps, Miss Jo was drawn to her garage to take inventory of the earthquake boxes and wonder what else might be needed to be ready to rumble.

Photos of fire hydrant by Miss Jo