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Interesting Disaster Stories

The 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake was pretty crappy (worst disaster in NZ history). The earthquake totally destroyed the water mains in the entire city. Fires started in chemists quickly consumed the city. The fire department attempted to pump sea water in to fight the fires, but the pumps clogged up with gravel and silt, and failed.

In the end they resorted to using explosives to destroy buildings around the fire perimeter to stop it spreading.

It was pretty heroic stuff.
 
Like the General Slocum, the Titanic, the Boxing Day Tsunami and many others, the Triangle Shirtwaist fire led to regulatory reform and better communications or warning/alarm systems being put in place.

Not huge in terms of the number of deaths, but huge in terms of the horror and in terms of the impact.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/introduction/triangle-intro/

If PBS re-runs it, catch the American Experience episode. (Or you can buy it if you're that interested.)
 
Haven't read the (zombie) thread, but I always loved the Seconds from Disaster TV series. Something bad happens and they go back and trace the almost Final Destination-like incredible circumstances that made it come about. I also like that it's mostly just about the mechanics and science of it, not a lot of the aftermath and anguish which plagues so many disaster reports.
 
Hawaii has had a batch of disasters. From tsunamis
to floods
to earthquakes
to fires
en.wikipedia.org

2023 Hawaii wildfires - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
and who can forget the volcanoes?
en.wikipedia.org

2018 lower Puna eruption - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

I've gone through many of these things. I was in the basement of the UH Library building when it flooded in 2004; classmates and we had to break a window to get out. I was on vacation in 2023, so we missed the Lahaina fires, but we were here for the earthquake in 2006.
 
I've bookmarked a bunch of disaster channels on Youtube. Not sure why, but I learn a lot:

For Great Lakes shipwrecks, lighthouse disasters, and other maritime stuff there's Big Old Boats:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=big+old+boats

Brick Immorter covers a lot of maritime disasters, bridge collapses, one epic train crash, and a department store collapse...in detail...:


Need mountain climbing death and disaster? Everest Mystery is good quality work:


Waterline Stories is another maritime disaster channel covering shipwrecks, oil rigs, and diving accidents:


This is his segment on the Beirut explosion. He's great because his videos are short and to the point, but be careful of this one because you might yell at your screen:


Have fun.
 
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