Global

Occurrences

By: Zoe Hilton

and Callie Raber
(#11 and #32)

4/25/15

Global Occurrences,
where you can find news
from around the world
in just a few pages!
A City in Ruins (The Ham and Eggs Fire)
The city of San Francisco is still trying to put itself back
together after a devastating earthquake that occurred on
April 18th. At 5:12 AM citizens awoke to the violent shaking
of the earth, only to see their houses falling down around
them and to hear the screams of terrified children and the
San Francisco set
ablaze.

cries of men and women trapped under the rubble. People

reacted to the earthquake in many different ways. Paralyzed
in shock and fear, gathering things in a vain attempt to
salvage as much as possible, and running to get away from
collapsing houses, but perhaps the strangest reaction to the
earthquake was cooking breakfast.
Not all civilians had been shocked after the
earthquake. In fact, some barely noticed it at all! One man,
whose name is currently unknown, decided to cook
breakfast after the earthquake. Little did he know, that his

chimney had been cracked and broken by the earthquake,

and upon lighting the fire he found the kitchen suddenly
ablaze. The fire quickly began to spread and soon, all
surrounding buildings became engulfed in flames.
The firefighters arrived quickly, but to no avail
because the earthquake had cut off their access to their
water supply. They could do nothing but helplessly watch as
building after building became overwhelmed in flames. The
situation became dire as the fire began to target more
important buildings such as City Hall and The Palace Hotel.
A few people had tried to help the situation, but to no
avail. Eugene Schmitz had been one of those naive people.
He thought that using dynamite to obliterate the
surrounding buildings would stop the fire from spreading,
but hed been very, very wrong. Instead of stopping the
fire, he goaded it on. The City Hall building will need to be
completely rebuilt as will many buildings that were crushed
in the earthquake and then reduced to ashes in the fire.
The fire ended up burning for three to four whole days
and nearly turned the entire city into a pile of ashes. The
events that took place that day leave the world with so
many questions such as Could we have prevented this,
and Would the city be in ruins if they didnt blow up so
many buildings?.Perhaps the most important one though
is, How could something so short cause this much
damage?

Survivor Story : Mildred Covington

We interviewed many survivors of the earthquake, and received different, but all
tragic, stories. Perhaps the most interesting of those stories was that of Mildred
Covington whos only 13.
I awoke to my mom yelling at me to wake up, and I soon noticed why. I looked around
to see that one of the walls to our house had collapsed. I got up from my bed not knowing

what to do, and that was when my dad appeared and told us to get into the doorway. I quickly
obeyed, and held on, fearing that each breath I took could be my last. Tears were streaming
down my face, and I was so frightened that I barely noticed when my dad pulled me into a
heartfelt embrace. There we were,standing in the doorframe when the shaking finally
stopped. I got up and dared to go outside for a glance at all the buildings. Everywhere I saw
piles of rubble where houses once stood, and everywhere I heard the screams. I looked back
at my house, and noticed that it was still standing, but about to fall. My mother and father
were also standing on the street talking, and I saw my mom nod her head right before my dad
went back into the house. I was about to shout in protest when the roof and the house
collapsed with my father inside.
At first it felt unreal, and for a second I even thought that I would wake up and
everything would be fine. For a split second, I let myself fall into this false reality of thinking
nothing was wrong and this was all a bad dream. My mother had her mouth wide open in shock
and tears were pouring like a river down her face. She collapsed onto her knees, and I went
over to help her up wiping tears from my eyes as well. I knew that it would take awhile for my
mom to fully recover from the events that had just occurred, and I also knew that I was
going to have to be responsible and lead us somewhere safe. I sighed and wiped yet another
tear from my face as I grabbed my mothers arm and helped her up. I didnt know what to do
next, so I decided to attempt to help my mother think of the positives. I began to say that at
least the whole thing was over, but I couldnt because that is when I saw the clouds of black
smoke in the distance and the glowing red and orange flames coming from a block down. All I
could think of was to run, and that is what I did. I grabbed my mothers arm and began to run
away from the fire and away from what had once been San Francisco. Eventually, we ran into
some soldiers on the street, and I begged and pleaded for them to help me. Unfortunately I
was ignored because of my age and I would have been clueless of what to do had my mom not
spoken. Sir, could you please tell us where a safe shelter is? she asked.
He told us to go about ten blocks down where we would find a place to stay where we
would be safe. My mom had now taken control and was guiding me to the safe heathen. When
we got their we were given some blankets to pitch a tent, and somehow we figured out how to
do it. Once everything was set up, I sat in our tent and let the tears come. I was incapable of
making any noise, but tears were pouring out of me like a waterfall. I saw my mom with a
basket filled with some apples, bread, and jugs of milk. She set the basket down, walked over
to me, and whispered in my ear, Everything is okay. I stopped crying and picked up an apple.
I believed her with all my heart.

This is a comic strip illustrating the main events of the 1906 Ham and Eggs fire.
(First your building catches on fire and burns everything. Then all thats left are
useless ruins.Finally, you and your family gather whats left and move on.)

Remembering the Silk Road

June 1, 200, Evening, Dunhuang

A caravan crossing the Gobi

Desert.

So far weve traveled a few more than 1,000 miles. Right now the
caravan is gathered around a bright, blazing fire sharing their
teachings. Before now I never realized there were so many religions;
Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, and several more. Many of our
caravan members also speak different languages such as Tibetan,
Uigher, Khotanese, and another called Judeo-Persian. I think what
happened is that the abundant trade brought people from all over,
thus causing different teachings and languages in one place. At the
rate its been going several people will change teachings, and possibly
combine them. In fact, about three of our members have changed to
Hinduism.

Today is global
Remembrance Day,
and to celebrate we
Gobi Desert, June 12,200, Midday
copied three journal
Today we are traveling through the Gobi Desert with 100 F, little
entries from travelers
water, and 300 miles of sandy plain to deal with. So far weve passed
on the Silk Road.
two road markers ( bones of animals and men). It all makes me
wonder how they became bones and how long theyve been here. Do
they have families at home? If so how long have they waited or did
they give up on them? And most importantly; will that be us one day?
The desert can do horrible things to your state of mind. Whats even
worse than me losing my mind ( and possibly apart of it) is that weve
heard singing and wailing that seems to come from inside the earth.
The caravan leader says its the goblins and spirits, but I believe its
the piles of bones and their mourning families. If anything this place is
the very statement of the cruel and dark underworld.
Changan, April 5, 200, Dawn
I am about to leave for what will be the longest journey of my life. As
a soldier of the Han army, I was required to do most of the heavy
lifting in order to get our caravan ready to leave. I had the chance to

work with the merchant traveling with us in getting the camels ready,

and we discovered a problem trying to carry all of the orange seeds,

silk, and iron. Eventually, we got everything ready and I was allowed
time to visit my wife Daiyu, and my son, Bao-Zhi. My wife and I both
stood, holding back tears and watching our son cry his eyes out, as
we said our goodbyes. Before we leave, I believe I am going to look
over our maps once more. I am very interested in the spices I hear
come from India. I hope to bring some back to my wife and son,
though we are traveling as far as Rome and I may not survive the
entire journey there and back. Now, all I can do is wait and listen to
the teachings of Confucius for advice.

Cross Word of the Day

3.
2.

7.
9.

1.

6.

10.

8.

5.

4.

Words
Ivory

Buddhism Desert

silk

Dunhuang

Glassware

Ferghana

Han

Traveler

Caravan
1.The main export of China, gave the silk road its name.
2 .A religion that originated in India and was made popular by the silk road.
3. A white substance, usually made out of an animal horn that was traded along the silk road and
made in Africa.
4. Ornaments composed of glass made in Europe.
5. A place where amazing horses were bred in Central Asia and traded along the Silk Road.
6. A place that is unusually hot during the daytime and extremely cold at night. Most people
traveled this along the silk road.
7. A place to rest along the silk road before entering the Gobi and Taklimakan deserts. Religious
decorations covered the walls and roof.
8. The dynasty in which the silk road was started and is often broken up into two periods.
9. Somebody who is journeying to a new land.
10. A vehicle fit to live in, usually pulled by camels. was used for transportation along the silk
road.

Silk Road Advice:

When traveling the Silk Road there were many dangers such as
starvation, thirst, bandits, and ferocious sandstorms. A few
ways caravans prepared was that they packed several baskets of
food and more than enough water jugs to make sure they didnt
run out of supplies. Caravans were also silent so the bandits
couldnt notice them right away. This could give them enough
time to escape or prepare to fight. During sandstorms they
covered their mouth and nose, hunkered down behind semiprotective areas, and stayed put. They had done this to make
sure they werent injured or became off track. Even though
there were several dangers on the Silk Road, caravans created
ways to survive them in order to continue traveling.

Bibliography

http://tinyurl.com/kchzhzg
caravan image
http://tinyurl.com/kzmn75n
sandstorm
Social Studies/ personal info. starvatoin,thirst, and bandits
http://tinyurl.com/n3pgp3n Sanfrancisco fire image
http://tinyurl.com/qcr7y85 Info. on the ham and eggs fire
http://tinyurl.com/rs49w Sample survivor stories
http://tinyurl.com/maq27h2 Example survivor stories
http://tinyurl.com/lye4fq5 Ham and eggs fire Info.
Address and company name goes here.