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all natural catastrophes. given time, you can take refuge from the most terrible storm or an erupting volcano. But there is not real refuge from an earthquake except in an open field and even there fissures may open. When the very earth beneath your feet begins to tremble it seems that the world is coming to an end. Sometimes, just before the first shock, you hear a rumple, a deep-throated growl.

It was this sound that wakened me on the morning of April 18, 1906. The bedroom I shared with Tid adjoined a screened porch where Bird usually slept. Shortly after five oclock I heard the strange growl. My first thought was that Bird was fighting with another dog. In the next second, our house began to shake. It groaned and creaked, tortured by the stresses. I heard glasses and dishes shattering on the floor in the kitchen and dining room and then a thunderous crash in my parents' bedroom. A heavy headboard on their bed had fallen forward, striking Mother. Except for a large bump on her head, she was not hurt. as the chimney crumbled bricks thundered on the roof and fell, rattling, into the