It is so hard to imagine living almost one hundred years ago and learning of disater of this magnitude after almost a week has passed. Cable news has sure replaced an outdated mode of communication but the Associated Press is still a familiar name to us. Van Buren Argus Crawford County, Arkansas April 25, 1906 SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., DESTROYED BY EARTHQUAKE Indescribable Horror Prevails and the Loss of Life and Property Can Not be Approximated. Business Section Suffers Most. FIRE ADDS TO THE HORROR AND CONSUMES WRECKAGE. Water Supply Destroyed and Fireman Can Only Stand and Watch the Flames Consume Wrecked Buildings and Victims Buried Beneath the Ruins. >From Wednesday’s Daily The destruction wrought in San Francisco, Calif., at an early hour this morning will probably prove to be even a greater calamity that that befalling Galveston a few years ago, both in loss of life and destruction of property. Wherever telegraph or cable offices are maintained the news of the disaster is being discussed. Just how much of the city has been toppled into a heap of ruins; how many lives have been lost; how much property has been destroyed, has not yet been estimated, and it will be at least 24 hours before any definite idea of the destruction wrought can be formed. >From the meager reports sent out by the Associated Press, whose building at 302 Montgomery Street was destroyed, it appears that the greatest damage was done in the business section on the bay side of the city and that fire in the wrecked buildings added additional terror. The water mains were broken and the fire must necessarily burn itself out. The streets are choked with debris and the work of rescuing those buried in the collapsed buildings much be necessarily slow. San Francisco, Calif., April 18, 6 a m- The business section of this city was destroyed by an earthquake at 5:15 this morning, the shock being continuous for full 3 minutes. At this moment it is impossible to tell what the loss of life will be, but it is very great and it is feared that it is something tremendous. San Francisco, Calif., April 18, 8 a m- This city has been practically wiped out by an earthquake. Excitement is indescribable. Water works wrecked and fire has broken out in every portion of the wrecked sections. Thousands of buildings destroyed and many are still collapsing. Wires failed at 8:15. San Francisco, Calif., April 18, 9 a m- Eleven hundred people believed to have been killed on South America Street. Damage in the tenement districts where the buildings are small and built of wood, the loss of live is small. Sand Francisco, Calif., April 18, 11:10 am- The business section of the city, from Market street to Mission Street, and from the bay back, has been almost completely wrecked. Many buildings along Market and Mission Streets, including department stores have collapsed. Hundreds of people in cheaper tenement districts reported killed. Fires are raging, and owing to scarcity of water are practically beyond control. Business is practically suspended. The office of the Postal Telegraph Company in the Hobart Building is wrecked as well as the Associated Press Building at 302 Montgomery Street. Residence portion is but slightly damaged, although nearly every house has been more or less injured. San Francisco, Calif., April 18, 1 p m- The Lenley Hotel collapsed at noon without warning and fully 75 people were buried in the debris. Conditions are growing worse hourly. Buildings that showed but little damage immediately after the seismic shock are crumbling to the ground. Fire is raging in almost every block south of Market Street and west of the bay for some distance along the water front. Fran Alverson Warren e-mail: alverson@valuelinx.net 479-369-2703 http://www.crawfordcountyarkansas.net/