Great Disasters

After a church outing to an amusement park, an old yellow school bus full of sleepy kids made its way home along the interstate. At the same time, a pickup truck was driving the other way - in the same lane.

Drawing from contemporary coverage, official reports and eyewitness accounts, I'll tell the story of the Carrollton Bus Crash.

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A wave of black, sticky molasses engulfs a Boston neighbourhood, wreaking a sweet-tasting but deadly kind of havoc. It's one of history's more unusual disasters, but that doesn't mean it should be treated lightly.

Drawing from both modern and contemporary reports and eyewitness accounts, I'll tell the story of the Boston Molasses Flood.

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It should have been an ordinary Wednesday morning commute, with the biggest worry being whether there would be any seats free on the train. Instead, it was described as being akin to the battlefields of the war just seven years past.

Drawing from contemporary reports and eyewitness accounts, I'll tell the story of the Harrow & Wealdstone rail crash - Britain's deadliest peacetime train disaster.

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A bright, sunny New York morning turned to disaster in a matter of moments - and it would be the city's most deadly disaster for almost a hundred years. This heartbreaking disaster literally decimated a community, with a death toll of over a thousand, mostly women and children.

Drawing from contemporary reports and eyewitness accounts, I'll tell the story of the General Slocum disaster.

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It was supposed to be a fun afternoon; hundreds of children packed into Sunderland's Victoria Hall for a magic show. Their tickets promised the greatest treat ever given, and the chance of presents, too. However, for many it would end in the most heartbreaking tragedy possible.

Drawing from contemporary and modern accounts, I'll tell the story of the Victoria Hall disaster.

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The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami brought unspeakable devastation to Japan, but they were only part of the story. A third disaster followed when the first two cut off power to one of the world's largest nuclear power plants. Now a race was on to contain the meltdown and save the country.

Drawing heavily from eyewitness accounts, I'll tell the story of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.

Visit www.greatdisasters.co.uk for the full transcript and more.

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Japan is a country that's accustomed to earthquakes, and one you might have thought would be prepared for anything. However, they were not prepared for the scale of the megathrust earthquake that happened one Friday afternoon in March.

Drawing heavily from eyewitness accounts, I'll tell the story of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Visit www.greatdisasters.co.uk for the full transcript and more.

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More than 250 people boarded a DC-10 airliner for a luxurious sightseeing trip in one of the most remote parts of the world. Their trip came to an unexpected and tragic end on the side of a mountain.

Using contemporary news reports, the accounts of those involved in the investigation, and the two official reports produced, I'll tell the story of the Erebus Disaster.

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The Yangtze River is the third longest in the world - and when it breaks its banks, its power should not be underestimated.

Using contemporary accounts and modern analysis, I'll tell the story of the 1931 China Floods.

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It is perhaps the most famous volcano in the world - but the event it’s best known for happened almost two thousand years ago. So what is it about Mount Vesuvius that allows its story to endure?

Using the eyewitness account of Pliny the Younger and other historic and modern material, I'll tell the story of Vesuvius and Pompeii.

Visit www.greatdisasters.co.uk for the full transcript and more.

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