An Excerpt From: "An Endless Cycle of Crises? Housing in Post-Earthquake San Francisco, 1906-1915" by Marie Bolton

     Immediately after the earthquake and fire, the question of what to do with a large population of homeless and jobless people was answered by the US Army, which organized San Franciscans into
refugee camps ruled under martial law. The army seized what food and essentials were left in the city for distribution to refugees, along with tents and other army supplies. At General Frederick Funston's
suggestion, Mayor Eugene Schmitz provided for civil oversight of the army in a proclamation which read in part : « The Federal Troops, the members of the Regular Police Force and all Special Officers have been authorized by me to KILL any and all found engaged in Looting or in the Commission of Any Other Crime ». The proclamation also ordered a dusk to dawn curfew.

     Schmitz appointed the San Francisco Relief Committee to work with the American Red Cross, private social agencies, notably the Associated Charities of San Francisco (ACSF), and the army in
planning relief operations. Initially, the San Francisco health and the army worked together to ensure sanitary facilities for the refugees, with the army providing most of the labor and General Adolphus Greely (taking over from Funston) used this leverage to force Schmitz and the Relief Committee to accept the army plan to house refugees in military camps in order to a strict health code. Already by May 13, 1906, 21 of the over 100 camps in which more than 50,000 people lived were run as
posts under direct army control. 

(Footnotes omitted) (Source)