Never before in history has a city been so completely destroyed. San Francisco is gone. Nothing is left of it but memories and some houses far from the centre of the city. Its businesses are gone. The factories, hotels and palaces are all gone too. Within an hour after the earthquake, the smoke of San Francisco’s fires could be seen 160 kilometres away. The sun was red in the dark sky. There was no stopping the fires. There was no way to organize or communicate. The steel railway tracks were now useless. And the great pipes for carrying water under the streets had burst. All of the ways man had made to keep the city safe were gone in the thirty seconds the earth moved.历史上从未有一座城市被如此彻底地摧毁过。旧金山不见了。除了记忆和远离市中心的一些房子，这里什么也没有留下。它的商业已经消失。工厂、酒店和宫殿也都消失了。地震发生后不到一个小时，160公里外就可以看到旧金山大火的浓烟。黑暗的天空中，太阳是红色的。无法阻止火灾。没有办法组织或沟通。钢铁铁轨现在已经没用了。街道下用来输水的大管道也爆裂了。在地球移动的三十秒内，人类为保护城市安全而采取的所有措施都消失了。
Out at sea it was calm. No wind came up. Yet from every direction - east, west, north, and south, strong winds blew upon the unlucky city. Man himself had to make ruins of some of the city’s best buildings so that they would not be a danger to those in the streets. A list of buildings undestroyed was now only a few addresses. A list of the brave men and women would fill a library. A list of all those killed will never be made.海上很平静。没有风。然而，从东、西、北、南各个方向，强风都吹向了这座倒霉的城市。人类自己不得不把城市里最好的建筑做成废墟，这样就不会对街上的人构成危险。一份未被破坏的建筑清单现在只有几个地址。一个勇敢的男人和女人的名单会填满一个图书馆。所有遇难者的名单永远不会被列出。
Amazing as it may seem, Wednesday night was a quiet night. There were no crowds. The policemen said nothing; even their horses were quiet. There were no shouts or people doing crazy things. In all those terrible hours I saw not one woman who cried, not one man who was excited. Before the fires, through the night, thousands and thousands of people who had lost their homes left for safety. Some were covered in blankets. Sometimes whole families put everything they owned and could save into wagons. They helped one another climb the high hills around the city.令人惊讶的是，周三晚上是一个安静的夜晚。没有人群。警察什么也没说；就连他们的马也很安静。没有喊叫，也没有人在做疯狂的事情。在那些可怕的时刻，我没有看到一个女人哭泣，也没有一个男人激动。在火灾发生之前，整个晚上，成千上万的失去家园的人为了安全而离开。有些人被毯子覆盖。有时，全家人把他们所有的、能省下来的东西都装进货车里。他们互相帮助爬上城市周围的高山。