Examples
An example of modern vintage is the publication of The High Girders in 1956 by the journalist John Prebble concerning Tay Bridge Disaster of December 28, 1879, one of the worst ever disasters on the rail network in Britain. It is a well composed book and written with good documentary accuracy, the author having accessed the many documents which have survived, especially the massive government report of 1880. On the other hand, he lacks confidence when discussing the engineering defects which lay at the heart of the accident. It did have a very positive benefit in stimulating others to write up their interpretation of the event, such as John Thomas in his New Light on the Tay Bridge Disaster published in 1972. He delved yet further into the archives and produced good evidence to show how faulty construction led directly to failure. Other recent authors such as Peter R Lewis in Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay (2004), have analysed the disaster from an engineering viewpoint, showing how design and construction defects led to destabilisation of the central part of the bridge.
John Edward Curtis Prebble, FRSL, OBE,(23 June 1915 – 30 January 2001) was an English journalist, novelist, documentarian and popular historian. He is best known for his studies of Scottish history.
The sinking of the RMS Titanic in April 1912 was vividly recreated by Walter Lord in his A Night to Remember published in 1955, a book that became a best-seller and still remains in print for its accuracy and detail. It was later dramatised in a film of the same name, and most recently in a Hollywood epic. Lord followed it in 1986 with another book on the disaster, revealing testimony from survivors who had hitherto remained silent. His work also stimulated exploration of the wreck itself by Robert Ballard, and much new information emerged from the direct evidence. The ship had broken into two halves during the final stages of the disaster, and each separate part ended up well apart from one another.
RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912, after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making it one of modern history's deadliest commercial marine disasters during peacetime. RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time she entered service and was the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line. She was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Thomas Andrews, chief naval architect of the shipyard at the time, died in the disaster.
John Walter Lord Jr. was an American author and historian, best known for his documentary-style non-fiction account A Night to Remember (1955), about the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
A Night to Remember is a 1955 non-fiction book by Walter Lord that depicts the sinking of the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912. The book was hugely successful, and is still considered a definitive resource about the Titanic. Lord interviewed 63 survivors of the disaster as well as drawing on books, memoirs, and articles that they had written. In 1986, Lord authored his follow-up book, The Night Lives On, following renewed interest in the story after the wreck of the Titanic was discovered by Robert Ballard.
An earthquake is the shaking of the surface of the Earth, resulting from the sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in size from those that are so weak that they cannot be felt to those violent enough to toss people around and destroy whole cities. The seismicity, or seismic activity, of an area is the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time. The word tremor is also used for non-earthquake seismic rumbling.
A disaster film or disaster movie is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject and primary plot device. Such disasters include natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, tsunamis or asteroid collisions, accidents such as shipwrecks or airplane crashes, or calamities like worldwide disease pandemics. A subgenre of action films, these films usually feature some degree of build-up, the disaster itself, and sometimes the aftermath, usually from the point of view of specific individual characters or their families or portraying the survival tactics of different people.
The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred in Northern California on October 17 at 5:04 p.m. local time. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park approximately 10 mi (16 km) northeast of Santa Cruz on a section of the San Andreas Fault System and was named for the nearby Loma Prieta Peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains. With a moment magnitude of 6.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), the shock was responsible for 63 deaths and 3,757 injuries. The Loma Prieta segment of the San Andreas Fault System had been relatively inactive since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake until two moderate foreshocks occurred in June 1988 and again in August 1989.
The Great Galveston Hurricane, known regionally as the Great Storm of 1900, was the deadliest natural disaster in United States history, one of the deadliest hurricanes to affect Canada, and the fourth-deadliest Atlantic hurricane overall. The hurricane left between 6,000 and 12,000 fatalities in the United States; the number most cited in official reports is 8,000. Most of these deaths occurred in the vicinity of Galveston after storm surge inundated the entire island with 8 to 12 feet of water. In addition to the number killed, every house in the city sustained damage, with at least 3,636 destroyed. Approximately 10,000 people in the city were left homeless, out of a total population of nearly 38,000. The disaster ended the Golden Era of Galveston, as the hurricane alarmed potential investors, who turned to Houston instead. The Gulf of Mexico shoreline of Galveston island was subsequently raised by 17 ft (5.2 m) and a 10 mi (16 km) seawall erected.
Sociology of disaster is a special branch of sociology. The research is predominantly done in the United States, Germany and Italy. Theoretically, it includes not only local disasters, but catastrophes on a grand scale. The field is closely linked with environmental sociology and sociocultural anthropology.
The March 1913 tornado outbreak sequence was a devastating series of tornado outbreaks that affected the northern Great Plains, the Southern United States, and sections of the upper Midwest over a two-day-long period between March 21–23, 1913. Composed of two outbreaks, the sequence first began with a tornado outbreak that commenced in Mississippi early on March 21. Several significant tornadoes occurred, one of which killed seven people in one family and another destroyed much of Lower Peach Tree, Alabama, with 27 deaths all in that town. The tornado at Lower Peach Tree is estimated to have been equivalent to a violent F4 tornado on the Fujita scale, based upon damage accounts. The tornadoes occurred between 0630–1030 UTC, or pre-dawn local time, perhaps accounting for the high number of fatalities—a common trend in tornadoes in the Dixie Alley. In all, tornadoes in Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama killed 48 people, perhaps more, that day and injured at least 150 people.
It Could Happen Tomorrow was a television series that premiered on January 15, 2006 on The Weather Channel. It explored the possibilities of various weather and other natural phenomena severely damaging or destroying America's cities. This included: a Category 3 hurricane hitting New York City, an F4 tornado destroying Washington, D.C., dormant volcano Mount Rainier re-activating and destroying towns in the surrounding valleys, a tsunami flooding the Pacific Northwest coast, an intraplate earthquake impacting Memphis, Tennessee, wildfires spreading into the heart of San Diego, a huge earthquake leveling San Francisco, a flash flood in Boulder, Colorado, and a flood in Sacramento. Newer episodes that were aired included an earthquake in Las Vegas, an F5 tornado ripping its way through Chicago and Dallas, and more.
A natural hazard is a natural phenomenon that might have a negative effect on humans or the environment. Natural hazard events can be classified into two broad categories: geophysical and biological. Geophysical hazards encompass geological and meteorological phenomena such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, wildfires, cyclonic storms, floods, droughts, avalanches and landslides. Biological hazards can refer to a diverse array of disease, infection, infestation and invasive species.
Abraham Lincoln Artman Himmelwright, a civil engineer, author, adventurer, and marksman was the general manager of The Roebling Construction Company, the New York City firm created by John A. Roebling's Sons Company of Trenton, New Jersey. Himmelwright's first and second names were given to him by his parents to honor the slain president, Abraham Lincoln, assassinated the year Himmelwright was born. In most of the works he authored he went by the name "ALA Himmelwright".
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18 with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). High intensity shaking was felt from Eureka on the North Coast to the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region to the south of the San Francisco Bay Area. Devastating fires soon broke out in the city and lasted for several days. Thousands of homes were dismantled. As a result, up to 3,000 people died and over 80% of the city of San Francisco was destroyed. The events are remembered as one of the worst and deadliest earthquakes in the history of the United States. The death toll remains the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California's history and high in the lists of American disasters.
The 1906 Meishan earthquake was centered on Moe'akhe, Kagi-cho, Japanese Taiwan and occurred on March 17. Referred to at the time as the Great Kagi earthquake, it is the third-deadliest earthquake in Taiwan's recorded history, claiming around 1,260 lives. The shock had a surface wave magnitude of 6.8 and a Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent).
1906 is a 2004 American fictional historical novel written by James Dalessandro. With a 38-page outline and six finished chapters, he pitched it around Hollywood in 1998 for a film by the same name, based upon events surrounding the great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906.
The Great Flood of 1913 occurred between March 23 and March 26, after major rivers in the central and eastern United States flooded from runoff and several days of heavy rain. Related deaths and damage in the United States were widespread and extensive. While the exact number is not certain, flood-related deaths in Ohio, Indiana, and eleven other states are estimated at approximately 650. The official death toll range for Ohio falls between 422 and 470. Flood-related death estimates in Indiana range from 100 to 200. More than a quarter million people were left homeless. The death toll from the flood of 1913 places it second to the Johnstown Flood of 1889 as one of the deadliest floods in the United States. The flood remains Ohio's largest weather disaster. In the Midwest damage estimates exceeded a third of a billion dollars. Damage from the Great Dayton Flood at Dayton, Ohio, exceeded $73 million. Indiana’s damages were estimated at $25 million. Further south, along the Mississippi River, damages exceeded $200 million. Devastation from the flood of 1913 and later floods along the Mississippi River eventually changed the country's management of its waterways and increased federal support for comprehensive flood prevention and funding for flood control projects. The Ohio Conservancy Act, which was signed by the governor of Ohio in 1914, became a model for other states to follow. The act allowed for the establishment of conservancy districts with the authority to implement flood control projects.
All Hands And Hearts - Smart Response is a U.S.-based, 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Founded in September 2005, All Hands provides relief to residents in areas affected by natural disasters in the U.S. and internationally. In late 2017 All Hands Volunteers merged with the Happy Hearts Fund, founded by Czech supermodel and philanthropist, Petra Němcová, to become All Hands and Hearts - Smart Response. It is based in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts.
On 18 May 2015 a major landslide hit the town of Salgar, in Antioquia, Colombia. At least 78 people died in the disaster, making it the deadliest single-event disaster in Colombia since the 1999 Armenia, Colombia earthquake.
The 2017 Surigao earthquake occurred on February 10, 2017 at 10:03 PM (PST), with a surface wave magnitude of 6.7 off the coast of Surigao del Norte in the Philippines. According to the PHIVOLCS Earthquake Intensity Scale the earthquake was an Intensity VII (Destructive) earthquake at maximum. In the past Surigao province has been hit by a magnitude 7.2 tremor in both 1879 and 1893.
Gladys Cox Hansen was an American librarian, archivist and author. She was an expert on the history of San Francisco and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Namahyoke Sockum Curtis recruited the 32 black nurses to serve with the US Army in the Spanish American War. The nurses were supposed to be immune to diseases common in Cuba, specifically Yellow fever. Her husband was the superintendent of the Freedmen's Hospital. After the 1900 Galveston hurricane, she volunteered her services as a nurse.
