Comprehending The Calamity And Horrific Wreck Of The City

The Texas City disaster took place on April 16th, 1947, with the detonation of 2300 tons of ammonium nitrate, near the Texas City docks. The Grandcamp was set to embark on an assigned trip to Europe to help in the reconstruction of various countries in the aftermath of the Second World War. The ships were loaded with 32.5 % ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which is a high explosive used in military and mining operations. The result of which was a DDT which is a deflagration to detonation causing a massive explosion leading to many deaths, destroyed homes, and the surroundings being ruined. The leading causes of this horrific tragedy were poor transportation and storing laws of ammonium nitrate which was a main component in the disaster, if these two components had have been handled with more care the lives of innocent people would not have been lost.

And lastly, in chapter 5 "The Spectacular City," Klinenberg speaks about media's involvement during that time. He investigates and interviews journalists, editors, and news companies, discussing the angles at which the disaster was portrayed and why this may be. More importantly, this chapter focuses on the cultural "reframing" of the actually news and information of the heat wave. He says that Chicago used its public relations tools to deny there was a disaster and then to claim it was a natural and unpreventable one. They defended the government's role while masking the social roots of the high mortality rates during the heat wave.

George Heinrich Crist, a resident of Kentucky, was settled with his family in a well-built house when the New Madrid Earthquake of 1811 came across their path, unlike a storm this “thing” had no warnings. He chose to share his account of this quake, or quakes. This was part of his life and also a part of history in the making so that is why I believe he shared his personal essay. It’s not an argumentative account but rather short entries from 5 months from his life. Kentucky wasn’t the only state that was hurt, 6 other states were involved. The term “New Madrid Earthquake” refers to portions of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. This was the biggest earthquake (series of earthquakes) as it changed the course of the Mississippi river.

On April 18, 1906, an earthquake occurred in San Francisco with a magnitude of 7.9. The earthquake was caused by the San Andreas Fault since the San Andreas Fault slip over a segment. The earthquake could be felt from Oregon to southern California. Buildings in San Francisco was destroyed by earthquake and fires. Fires started after the earthquake occurred and firefighters were not able to stop the fire because the water mains were broken and because of this, firestorms started to develop around San Francisco. Then, the San Francisco Mayor E.E. Schmitz called the U.S. Army troops to shoot anyone that is found looting. While the army was doing that, firefighters and U.S. troops tried to fight the fire by dynamiting the city to create firewalls.

A well-known Gilded Age author of satirical pieces, Mark Twain, in his text “Dreams Dissipated”, argues the elite and other influential groups he despises, should not be idolized by the public. Twain’s purpose is to reveal the true intentions and behavior of these groups at the face of tragedy in order to stop the public from aspiring to be like them or seek guidance from them. He adopts a connotative tone for his audience who may be unaware of the immoral behavior the elite display during the “great” earthquake in San Francisco. Twain supports this claim by first referring to a tragic event using connotative diction to hint at the animal-like behavior of these groups, then he illustrates a chaotic scene and the ill-fitted reactions of the

Famous satirical author in the Gilded age, Mark Twain, in his “Dreams Dissipated”, argues the Great Earthquake in San Francisco in 1865 had revealed the true animal-like behavior of the elite and other people with a following. Twain’s purpose is to unveil the true nature of the elite and influential public figures to show they are not superior than the general public, in order for his audience not to seek guidance from the elite and view them as people with flaws. Twain adopts a mocking tone for his audience who may blindly follow the elite and other groups, as well to an audience who may be unaware of the ‘true’ effect it had on the people of San Francisco. Twain supports this claim by first using intricate descriptions for each scenario taking

I. ATTENTION GAINER: “On TV I watched as the bridge collapses. Minnesota. Rush hour. Trucks and cars suspended over water. Cars swaying and falling… imagine what those people felt, … when everything they knew, everything they believed they could trust, crashed and broke beneath them, that final moment of disbelief and then the terror as they fell.” This was an excerpt

The tea cups that began to shatter were enough to wake Rose M. Quinn from her bed in the early morning hours of April 18, 1906. The earthquake that lasted just one minute was estimated to be close to 8.0 on the richter scale and was large enough to destroy 30,000 buildings, including her own home, in what was determined to be one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in U.S history. And while Ms.Quinn held out hope that her “City of the Golden West” would restore its nearly 400 million dollars worth of damage (10.8 billion dollars today), an even stronger and largely unknown earthquake rocked the United States just 100 years prior.

Today I began reading with the book called I Survived. The book is in 1906. It tells you about an earthquake about San Francisco.What happened was Leo and Fletch were in the basement and they saw stuff shaking and they knew it was an earthquake because they seen on the news and it was a warning and that’s why they went down to the basement.Bonnie was scared of the earthquake because she never been in an earthquake.

On April, 18 1906, San Francisco would be divested by several disasters. That morning at five, the San Andreas Fault shifted, resulting in an earthquake with a strength of 7.8 on the Richter Scale. It shocked San Francisco and the surrounding areas. The quake lasted 45 seconds to one minute only, and caused major damage and loss of life. The buildings in San Francisco during the time were largely made of wood and some of the newly built ones were made of brick and stone. City officials worked with builders for this change in response to six fires that occurred closely together before the earthquake, (Gunn, 2008). The new brick buildings could survive a fire, but it was

Source 3: “Loma Prieta Earthquake” states, “the earthquake killed more than 60 people, injured almost 4,000.” Many people die or are severely injured during the earthquake or the after shock. People who are in critical conditions may have to say goodbye to one of their limbs. Depression is a common reaction to earthquakes; when people or material things you have grown fond of go away it may lead to depression and this tends to happen after earthquakes. It was said in Source 3: “Loma Prieta Earthquake” that as the San Francisco Giants were warming up the Loma Prieta Earthquake happened and it frightened the people in the stadium.

The San Francisco earthquake hit on October 17, 1989. It has been the strongest earthquake recorded since 1906. The earthquake “also called Loma Prieta earthquake… struck the San Francisco bay area” (“San Francisco - Oakland Earthquake” 1). Numerous areas were affected by the earthquake, but San Francisco was hit the hardest. The earthquake “struck just after 5:00 PM and lasted about 15 seconds with a 6.9 magnitude. At the time of the earthquake the third game of the world series had just begun.” (“San Francisco - Oakland Earthquake” 2). The earthquake had temporarily cut off all television and radio broadcast. The situation was extremely dangerous for the fans within the stadium. As the ground shook the press boxes began to shake and later the power went out. The stadium was able to endure the earthquake and no one inside was injured. Unfortunately it was not the same on the outside, “67 people were dead, and roads, bridges, and buildings had collapsed (Teitelbaum 26). The collapse of “the Cypress Street Viaduct (Nimitz Freeway) caused the most deaths (San Francisco-Oakland earthquake 3). The aftermath was devastating majority of the transportation systems within the City had been destroyed and shut down. The earthquake “was triggered by a slip along the San Andreas Fault. Its epicentre was

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on April 18 with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.8 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI . Severe shaking was felt from Eureka on the North Coast to the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region to the south of the San Francisco Bay Area. Devastating fires soon broke out in the city and lasted for several days. As a result, about 3,000 people died and over 80% of the city of San Francisco was destroyed. The events are remembered as one of the worst and deadliest natural disasters in the history of the United States. The death toll remains the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California's history and high in the lists of American urban disasters.

400-700 People died in the 1906 San-Francisco earthquake. The mass destruction, was unpreventable, and was also chaotic, obliterating over 25,000 buildings. Emma Burke, and Fred Hewitt were the author’s of one of the few Eyewitness novels that wrote about the quake. Would you like to be in that town? Would you like to have your house get destroyed? I hope not!

In The Story of an Eyewitness, Jack London uses the citizens of San Francisco in order to emphasize the socio-economic indifference amongst them while attempting to fight against the encroaching conflagrations that destroyed their homes.