SAN FRANCISCO, April 18: Thousands of people crammed downtown San Francisco streets in the pre-dawn darkness on Tuesday to commemorate the ‘Great Quake’ that destroyed the city 100 years ago.

Local political leaders and a dozen earthquake survivors took centre stage at Lotta’s Fountain, where survivors of the Apirl 18, 1906, earthquake spontaneously gathered to seek lost loved ones after the historic tragedy.

Over 3,000 lives were lost and more than half the city’s population of 400,000 people were left homeless after the big temblor, estimated to have registered a magnitude of 7.8 or 7.9 by modern standards.

The people of San Francisco ‘picked themselves up, dusted themselves off’ and rebuilt in a ‘shining example’ to New Orleans and other cities humbled by natural disasters, mayor Gavin Newsom told the throng.

Newsom joined the city’s fire and police chiefs and congresswoman Nancy Pelosi in placing a wreath on the bronze fountain, as the hands of a large clock behind them neared 05:12am local time, the time the quake struck that fateful morning.—AFP