Although I grew up in San Francisco, I didn't know anyone who had lived through the quake, although I probably knew some people whose parents or grandparents had lived through it. I think such individuals were common enought as not to be that remarkable, and their stories were all pretty much the same, "We camped out in Golden Gate Park". However, I did know a guy whose retired librarian mom was featured on one of the nightly news shows. She's the one who has been persistent in trying to determine the real death toll from the '06 quake.
There was a relatively big ceremony around Lotta's Fountain yesterday. Of course many of the details of the quake are well known to people who've lived in San Francisco for a while, including the fact that it was the fire, and not the quake, that caused the most destruction. And that the water mains nearly all failed, leaving the fire department basically defenseless to fight the blazes.
One interesting tidbit - without familiar buildings and landmarks, and with the wooden street signs gone, people had a very difficult time finding their way around the devastated areas. One result of this is that in downtown, most of the intersections have the steet names either set in brass letters embedded into the sidewalks, or stamped into the wet concrete. Additionally, as I recall, the street signs are all porcelain coated steel, with raised embossed letters, not painted on as in many other cities. I've thought that these embossed street signs, with the letters black on a plain white background,n can give even the plainest intersection in the City a classy look.
