Catastrophic Calamities

Details of the tragic Hartford Circus Fire, 1944.

An exploration of the tragic wreck of the Iolaire, a wealthy man’s yacht turned into a transport ship that went aground on the rocks of the Outer Hebrides, killing at least 201 sailors as they approached their home port.

On the afternoon of July 9th, 1982, Pam Am Flight 759 suddenly fell from the sky into a residential subdivision in Kenner, LA, killing all 145 people on board and eight people on the ground.

It took systemic problems, design flaws and good old-fashioned human error to turn a minor mechanical function into an accident that could have wiped out the entire eastern seaboard of the United States.

The 6.7 Northridge Earthquake, followed by a 6.0 aftershock, less than a minute later, wasn't the biggest earthquake to hit Southern California, but it was one of the worst, because the epicenter was directly under a populated area. It did over $20 billion in damage and, more importantly, at least 60 people lost their lives—16 of them in one building. The official death toll stands at 61, with one study, by USC and the USGS, reaching 72. But Nobody really knows for sure. What we do know is that there were over 8,700 people injured, 1,600 of them hospitalized.  More would have died in the aftershocks and fires caused by broken gas mains, if not for neighbors helping neighbors, and the incredible work done by police fire and rescue workers.
NBCLA First Reports Retrospective Full Show
NBCLA Northridge Earthquake Day Two Full Show
Northridge Earthquake Raw Footage, USGS No sound but some things you just have to see to believe
LAist 25th Anniversary Article Has pictures you can’t find anywhere else
Learning From Earthquakes Daniel Pendrick’s full article, on the Savage earth blog. Includes links to more information.
Seismology: The Northridge Earthquake and its Aftershocks Excellent article from the Southern California Earthquake Center, by Erik Hauksson and Lucy Jones