In 1906, the residents of San Francisco, California, had an abrupt change of lifestyle. They learned that almost anything can happen without warning. An earthquake killed about 3,000 people and caused over $400 million in prope rty damages. In 1920, the Gansu earthquake in China took about 200,000 lives. Then in 1948, the region around Ashgabat in the Soviet Union suffered a powerful quake that claimed over two - thirds of that city's population (110,000 people died)