Great Quake

An hour-by-hour chronicle of the colossal April 18, 1906, earthquake in San Francisco and the fires that followed, which made the catastrophe far worse. Re-creations follow city officials and citizens as they react to increasing horror and chaos. “San Francisco reverted to a Wild West town,” says historian James Dalessandro. The program also speculates on the Bay Area's geological future. “If terrorism is an `if',” Dalessandro says, “earthquakes are a `when'.”