AllMovie

Even to this day, the San Francisco Earthquake of April 18th, 1906 qualifies as one of the two most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history, second only to the Galveston, Texas hurricane of 1900. This program rests on the thesis that the calamity is still poorly understood by contemporary history students, but remains highly relevant to contemporary times; it therefore attempts to set the record straight. James Dalessandro, author of the tome 1906 and one of the world's leading experts on the '06 quake, journeys with his camera crew to San Francisco, to evaluate the sites where the initial tragedy erupted. The program then uses cutting-edge CGI technology and dramatic re-creations to convey a version of the events never before seen. Throughout, it also makes frequent use of interviews with seismologists and historians who impart their own perspectives to the events.