MEGA DISASTERS: THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE on The History Channel(R)

MEGA DISASTERS: THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE on The History Channel(R)

It Destroyed San Francisco 100 Years Ago ... and it WILL Happen Again

Premieres Sunday, April 16th, 2006 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT

NEW YORK, April 10 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 18, 1906 the earth under San Francisco shook violently for a terrifying 50 seconds, part of an earthquake that ripped a 270-mile rift in the earth and ultimately destroyed the City by the Bay. One hundred years later, take a look back at one of the worst natural disasters in American history, and a frightening look forward at the prospect of it happening again in modern times. MEGA DISASTERS: THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE premieres Sunday, April 16th, 2006 at 8:00 p.m. on The History Channel(R).

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051031/HISTORYLOGO )

At the dawn of the twentieth century, San Francisco was the place to be in the American West; a hub of trade and travel, business and banking. But, built with wood and un-reinforced brick, the city was a recipe for disaster. Located just to the east of the San Andreas Fault, the bay area is interlaced with eight major earthquake-producing faults. The earthquake of 1906 ruptured water sources, crushed even the most state-of-the-art buildings, and severed gas and water lines citywide, leaving hundreds of thousands of residents homeless and running from vicious fires that threatened to engulf them. MEGA DISASTERS: THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE takes viewers through the four days of hell and panic that ended with America's most picturesque city burned to the ground with perhaps thousands dead beneath the ruins.

When the ashes finally settled and the unparalleled scenes of destruction were documented by photographers from far and wide, focus turned to the effort to rebuild San Francisco. That effort was at once a testimony to the resiliency of the human spirit and a precursor to the foolish indifference to the power of nature that puts San Francisco in such a precarious position today. After an initial effort to impose building codes that would have protected the city's structures and homes from similar disasters in the future, the codes were deemed a hindrance to the rebuilding effort. Now, much of San Francisco's landscape remains just as vulnerable to disaster as it was in 1906.

Using state of the art computer animation, MEGA DISASTERS: THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE presents a chilling model of the havoc a similar earthquake could cause today: skyscraper windows falling from the sky and splitting cars in half; hundreds trapped in parking garages -- susceptible to carbon monoxide poisoning; traffic jams as far as the eye can see; perhaps even the landmark Golden Gate Bridge crashing into the waters of the San Francisco Bay. Even scarier, scientists say there's a 62 percent probability that such a quake will hit the Bay Area in the next twenty-five years.

Find out what some buildings, such as San Francisco's City Hall, have done to get ready, and what others still must do in preparation for the next big shake. And go back less than twenty years, to 1989, to find out how modern technology held up to a major earthquake in San Francisco in this eye-opening episode, MEGA DISASTERS: THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE.

Executive Producer for The History Channel is Marc Etkind. MEGA DISASTERS: THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE is produced for The History Channel by Creative Differences.

The History Channel(R) is one of the leading cable television networks featuring compelling original, non-fiction specials and series that bring history to life in a powerful and entertaining manner across multiple platforms. The network provides an inviting place where people experience history in new and exciting ways enabling them to connect their lives today to the great lives and events of the past that provide a blueprint for the future. The History Channel has earned six News and Documentary Emmy(R) Awards and received the prestigious Governor's Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the network's Save Our History(R) campaign dedicated to historic preservation and history education. The History Channel reaches more than 89 million Nielsen subscribers. The website is located at http://www.history.com/.

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051031/HISTORYLOGO
Source: The History Channel

CONTACT: Katie Bradshaw, +1-212-210-9108, or katie.bradshaw@aetn.com,
for The History Channel

Web site: http://www.history.com/

NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information and photography please visit us on the web at www.historychannelpress.com

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