Re: Bush Strums as New Orleans drowns

On Mon, 12 Sep 2005 04:34:41 +0000 (UTC), sethb@xxxxxxxxx (Seth
Breidbart) wrote:

>Just for comparison's sake:
>
> Response of the Theodore Roosevelt administration to
> the San Francisco earthquake, April 18, 1906
>
> The earthquake struck at 5:13 AM.
>
> By 7 AM, federal troops had reported to the mayor.
>
> By 8 AM, they were patrolling the entire downtown area
> and searching for survivors.
>
> A major aftershock struck at 8:14 AM.
>
> By 10:05 AM, the USS Chicago was on its way from
> San Diego to San Francisco.
>
> By 10:30 AM, the USS Preble had landed a medical team
> and set up an emergency hospital.
>
> By 11 AM, large parts of the city were on fire; troops continued
> to arrive throughout the day, evacuating people from the areas
> threatened by fire to emergency shelters and Golden Gate Park.
>
> St. Mary's hospital was destroyed by the fire at 1 PM, with no
> loss of life, the staff and patients having already been evacuated
> across the bay to Oakland.
>
> By 3 PM, troops had shot several looters, and dynamited buildings
> to make a firebreak; by five they had buried dozens of corpses, the
> morgue and the police pistol range being unable to hold any more.
>
> At 8:40 PM, General Funston requested emergency housing - tents
> and shelters - from the War Department in Washington; all of the
> tents in the U.S. Army were on their way to San Francisco by
> 4:55 AM the next morning.
>
> Prisoners were evacuated to Alcatraz, and by April 20 (two days
> after the earthquake) the USS Chicago had reached San Francisco,
> where it evacuated 20,000 refugees.
>
> (Timeline source is Gladys Hansen's "Chronology of the Great
> Earthquake, and the 1906-1907 Graft Investigations"
> http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist10/06timeline.html )
>
>Of course, the technology of the day was fairly primitive, and the
>U.S. was a much poorer country. No doubt we could move more quickly
>today. And, of course, they had no advance warning of the earthquake.

Why doesn't this support my larger claim?

At the time, the US had no FEMA, no Department of Homeland Security,
far fewer smaller bureaucracies. And, shock and surprise, they
reacted more rapidly! (At least if your account is true.)

Sadly, I think that the response to this is going to be more rules,
more officials, more bureaucracy. Exactly the opposite of what would
actually do any good.
--

Pete McCutchen
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Bush Strums as New Orleans drowns
    ... >> significantly delaying help from foreign countries? ... The earthquake struck at 5:13 AM. ... San Diego to San Francisco. ... evacuating people from the areas ...
    (rec.arts.sf.fandom)
  • Re: Atlantis, New Orleans, fabled underwater cities....
    ... > portion of the San Francisco Bay Bridge and a three-quarter mile, ... > earthquake resulted in 63 deaths, 13,757 injuries. ... > in public and private property damage. ... of the houses in order to put in garages into houses that never were ...
    (rec.bicycles.racing)
  • Re: Atlantis, New Orleans, fabled underwater cities....
    ... > portion of the San Francisco Bay Bridge and a three-quarter mile, ... > earthquake resulted in 63 deaths, 13,757 injuries. ... A lot of the damage in 1989 was in areas where the soil is ... masonry buildings are particularly vulnerable. ...
    (rec.bicycles.racing)
  • Re: OT - The Last Time America Lost a City
    ... > The earthquake struck at 5:13 AM. ... evacuating people from the areas threatened by ... > fire to emergency shelters and Golden Gate Park. ... > U.S. Army were on their way to San Francisco by 4:55 AM the next morning. ...
    (soc.culture.thai)
  • OT: The last time America lost a city
    ... San Francisco, April 18, 1906. ... The earthquake struck at 5:13 AM. ... By 7 AM federal troops had reported to the mayor. ... evacuating people from the areas threatened ...
    (rec.aviation.piloting)
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