this reminds us of the 3000 people but passed away in 1906 from the devastating earthquake, but the rebirth of our city is with us. i have been in all of these other positions where we are always prepared. and we are already engaged in recovery efforts.

we were there with a whole staff. we have six we assure you that when the next big event happens, that water system will be there for us to deliver water with that 24 hours. a huge change from depending on this fountain. we are handing it off to generations of youth in the city to understand -- make sure they're prepared. go to our website, it tells you all the things there. iti is about having those items prepared.w we will survive. that is how we get ready and celebrate and honor the people

who left us and make sure our city is ready. thank you for being here. congratulations to our survivors. >> very nice job. behind me is a good friend and a great firechief. you go back 106 years. braxton morning. -- good morning. one of the survivors could not be with us. those are amazing changes. it does give us the opportunity to remember what happened. we commemorate those who suffered losses in their lives and hardships.

we also celebrate the city that was nearly swept from the map. the fires raged for three days and caused rates -- great devastation. we take the opportunity to educate everyone. it is a pleasure for me to work under the direction of mayor lee. he is a public safety championship. he is a prepared as champion. he lives it. i have seen his kids and his workplace. it is all about teamwork. i am proud to be working with chief suhr. and scott weiner, it is a pleasure to have you out here. we appreciate it. it is a great team. thank you to the people who are out here.

and also our partners with the american red cross. who are here this morning. thank you for being here. it has been a tradition for many of us out here. i hope you have a great day and you remember what happened 106 years ago. it is great to be a san franciscan. >> a nice hand for the chief, everybody. i have seen this other chief speaking in the last couple of times. a nice hand for chief suhr. >> good morning. our fire chief said it. we're lucky in san francisco. we have a mayor who has moved through the tears of prepared as an goddess ready to go. we get a little more prepared every day. god bless to the survivors. >> thank you.

>> it is a minute of silence at 5-11. -- 51:11 p.m. let's have a moment of silence for a minute right now. [siren]

>> i think the fitting way to

end this germany first of all, -- this ceremony first of all. there will be playing. everybody have their words right here? i will give the countdown. as we hang the reece, i will give you a count here. have a look at me. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1. ♪ [singing] ♪

♪ >> a great day, everybody. thank you. the san francisco chornicle. and the history association.

and the neighborhood emergency response team. the american red cross. and thanks for making this happen. i want to invite everyone to go to 20th in church or -- and church. and we will meet up. we may skirt the law and serve something before 6:00 a.m. the bookmobile, where are they? >> i have my cheat sheet here which i cannot find. the library has been here after great disasters. there has -- is a special book

that won an award this year. here is the book. i downloaded it on my kindle. it can check out copies of the book mobile. nex>> thanks for being here. start walking slowly. welcome to san francisco, everyone. ♪

>> good morning. we are here to celebrate the reagan really we are here because of the timing. tomorrow is the anniversary of the san francisco earthquake. it was the earthquake that made us look for other sources of water that were reliable and robust for the entire area. it was the earthquake and the pressure after that that said you need to upgrade to make sure we will continue to get water for two and a half million people the has led us to this

program. there are a few projects left, but we are in the middle of the really large regional projects. about $2.5 million is being spent right now. the first person to speak about that is merely -- mayor lee. >> thank you to the commissioners who are here, the whole staff. you have done wonders. you are on schedule. i really look of these projects in quite a different way. i am really looking at what they accomplish. i am looking at job creation, and it is a wonderful understanding when you have 3 billion hours said have obtained so far for all the different

crafts. this particular project i have been quite interested in, because it is one the shares with san mateo county. is one they know is important. it is with six reservoirs' that we manage, and it increases with the improvements. it has been improved. the spillway allows for water runoff to come in and capture that as well, and it continues to reign in the cleanest water we have throughout the state. just talking about their systems, i was asking and exchanging information with there'irs. they seem to have similar challenges. they all point to an interesting

situation, and it just read establishes my confirmation that it is so important that we keep our water system in place, not only about preparing for the earthquake, and you know we can ensure the public if there is any major seismic event, and water service can be restored within 24 hours. that is important not just to san francisco residence. it is important to our neighbors. earthquake preparedness is one of the most important things i have been working on for a number your's -- a number of years in my previous capacity. we can ensure the public we are in a better position because of

our water system and the investment we are making, not just in san francisco. the investments were done in partnership with all the other counties common and not only have we manage it well. we have also used every opportunity to do local hiring along the way. local folks have had a good shot at these jobs. we shared this system with the rest of the counties and made sure the standards are continuing one of the most celebrated and innovative engineering feats in the history of our country, so i want to celebrate this milestone. there are three improvements

that have converged to this point, and that is worth celebrating. it is worth reminding everybody, when people continue to suggest perhaps it is time we take down head ceci -- to take down hetch hetchy, i believe they do not know what they are talking about. the first 35 miles is on hydroelectric power produced by our water system. thank you very much. >> as the mayor said, this is a partnership. people think of this as the san francisco water supply, but it is the regional water. we are in partnership with a lot of folks. with us today is the executive director of the conservation agencies, his vice share, who is

also on the city council, and with us is the president of the san mateo county board of supervisors and the long-term leader in the city. >> thank you. i really appreciate being here, and i want to say congratulations to the vice chair. i also served many moons ago, and at that time we wanted to work closely with san francisco, because this was a regional project, and everybody wanted to be sure this was done correctly and on budget, and we can rest assured that is the case. what is important -- they call me the queen of disaster, because after krajina -- katrina we started disaster preparedness, but most people

think about an earthquake common and the concern is are we going to have the necessary water to take care of individuals thomas -- individuals to? the answer is yes. i think we have to remember an emergency is not just an earthquake. an emergency could also be a drought, and we have increase the capacity, so that will bring us where we used to be, and that is where we need to be to make sure at the end of the day we are protected and have enough water to continue having the great quality of life throughout the region. i know the mayor mentioned jobs, and we feel the same way here. it is very important these projects have brought lots of jobs for workers throughout san

francisco and san mateo county, so it has been a win-win situation for our county and the rest of the regions, and i want to thank the mayor for the great partnership they provided, because what i have found, we have worked on many projects, and this is one of many that has created major improvements to our community. we met on the extension to the trans bay terminal. -- the san francisco transit a terminal. the mayor is aggressive in trying to meet the needs of development. we also recognize we are going to have to have capacity of water that is going to allow us to have extended developments in our community, and today is a historic day we are going to make that happen.

you are standing here because you did touch the project, and i thank you for that. congratulations. >> thank you, supervisor. our water system comes from hetch hetchy. we have been trying to make sure that each area is safe and reliable. we now have a new pipeline, and we have strengthened that connection over calaveras false -- fault. three and four is the next project to come up. we are building a new tunnel under the bay, and when you get to the crystal springs bypass

tunnel, we are carrying all the water we needed directly for our customers, if we do not need it for our customers, we store it in this lake, and we can store 22 billions of dollars -- 22 billions of gallons. we are working on crossing every one of those vaults, and we are in much better shape than we were five years ago. that is done with a lot of people involved. and we have our commission. we have a lot of our leadership here with us today. they have an -- dave is in charge of the people who work to keep this going.

they are part of the whole project and part of making it happen. we are trying to make sure your water will have arrived at major distribution points. we are very pleased to welcome you. if you want to talk about how you prepare your own home and to be able to get your own information so you are prepared for these kinds of things. >> good morning, everyone. it is a pleasure to be here. i was not planning on speaking, but i always love the opportunity puree good -- now i always love the opportunity. the earthquake showed their resolve to literally result from the ashes.

we are all working on this together, and we do take the opportunity, particularly as we are about to celebrate what happened on april 18, to remind everyone the importance of being a good member of the community, and you need to be prepared. there are wonderful websites. our department of emergency management has a web site. the fire department offers free and emergency response training, and our message is to educate and keep it on everyone's mind that our priorities should be prepared redness. personally, they are unpreparedness champions, and i thank you for that. it is a priority to be prepared, and the more prepared each of us are individually, the closer we can get to recovery that much sooner.

it is infrastructure that is important, but we cannot forget we should be as prepared as possible for our families and work places to be able to be participative, and we know we are grateful for the men and women who responded, and i am proud of the fire department, but our resources on a given day are adequate, but in the event of a large-scale disaster, we will need your help. the more we prepare, the better off we will be. but this was upgraded in 1896. new withstood the earthquake -- id withstood the earthquake without any damage. it is the prototype for the hoover dam, but we have had some concrete fall off.

next thing we are going to do is go under it for a photo op, and we will invite you to walk under it. this is the first and last time most of you will be able to come here. if you did not have a hard hat, most of you could not come here, and they are going to rebuild the roadway, and once that is there, and you will not be able to go on top of it. today is one of those days you can see what is going on. you will notice there is construction work still going on. that is part of the improvement program, and that is going to allow us to have a more robust way of bringing it up, and then it can go to a filtration glancplant nearby. if you would like to come with me, we can go over here.

>> i want to thank everyone for coming. i am the general manager of the recreation department. it is a pleasure to serve as the emcee today and i want to recognize our commission president. joining us all with our other dignitaries.

there are a lot of special people gathered around. for those of you who do not know, a little bit of background about this beautiful garden before i turn it over to our mayor. the garden is the oldest japanese american garden in the united states. it is a historical japanese- style garden, originally billed as a village for the 1894 midwinter international exposition. after the exposition, a japanese-american partner along with john mclaren converted the exhibition into a permanent park. he over saw the building as the teagarden and was the official caretaker from -- until 1925. he requested the people of japan 1000 flooring cherry trees

to be imported and other plants and birds and goldfish. his family lived in the garden until 1942. when under executive order 906, he was forced to relocate to an internment camp with thousands of other japanese american families. this barden was renamed the oriental tea garden and it fell into a state of disrepair. in the 1950's, we had moved forward and the rec and park renamed it the japanese tea garden. the first concessionaire was jack -- who many here had the incredible opportunity to honor. and we're very incredibly pleased to be planning --

planting a cherry tree from the consul general. the cherry blossom tree planting has become a tradition that allows us to reflect on the legacy of exchanges and importance of relations between the united states and japan. this is where families, a century old pract oice of picnicking underneath a tree. we hope many families for more generations will have the opportunity here in this beautiful garden. my great pleasure to turner with a microphone to our 43rd mayor of san francisco, celebrating diversity and cultural harmony and he has been focused on the economic revitalization of our community. jobs, jobs, jobs.