San Francisco Marks Anniversary of 1906 Earthquake
April 18--SAN FRANCISCO -- Hundreds of heads, many of them in stovepipe and bowler hats, bowed in silence at 5:11 a.m. on Market Street Friday, exactly one minute before the earthquake of 1906 struck 108 years before.
At 5:12 a.m., sirens blared from the fire trucks and police cars on hand and a roar went up from the crowd that had gathered at Lotta's Fountain at the corner of Market and Kearny streets as city officials looked on.
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Police Chief Greg Suhr and Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White each addressed the gathering of more than 100 people to commemorate what has come to be known as the Great Earthquake.
"This is part of all of our histories," Lee said from a stage in front of the fountain, which served as a meeting place for thousands of refugees who flocked there in the days following the powerful quake and ensuing fire.
The event returned to the fountain after last year's commemoration had to be hastily moved to Union Square when a suspicious package investigation shut down the area.
Missing from the celebration were the remaining survivors of the quake who have become a staple at the annual event, an absence that was not lost on Lee, who said that "seeing the survivors is one of the best parts of this special day."
While speakers at the event used the occasion to remember the past, they also took the opportunity to look to the future, touting the city's emergency preparedness plans and reminding residents that the quake of 1906 was not a one-time event.
"While we fear that there will be another earthquake," Lee said. "We don't fear that we'll be ready."
The mayor also took some time to plug a $400 million bond measure, aimed at improving public safety infrastructure, which will be on the ballot in June.
But, for the most part, the commemoration was about remembering the determination of a city that nearly burned to the ground more than a century ago.
"Today is about celebrating the great resiliency of this city," Hayes-White said. "It's about a city literally rising from the ashes."
From Lotta's Fountain, a procession traveled to 20th and Church streets for the ceremonial spraying of gold paint onto one of the few fire hydrants still in operation after the quake, which was largely credited with saving the Mission District from the raging blaze that consumed much of the city.
But for some, the event was more personal than ceremonial.
Joyce Turowski, a 67-year-old medical transcriptionist who came dressed in the full regalia of a 1906 survivor, had been to more of these events than she could recount, but each one served as a way to remember her two friends who were among the 42 killed when the Cypress Freeway collapsed in Oakland after the Loma Prieta quake in 1989.
"I try to come down every year," said Turowski, who has lived in San Francisco since the early 80s. "It's important because it's not just part of our past, it's part of our future too."
Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfkale
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