Books on Disasters

Just finished reading Rising Tide by John M. Barry. Very interesting; I knew very little about this disaster before. He didn't make a very strong case for "how it changed America" as the subtitle claims, but the historical data was very detailed, including discussion of attempts to control the Mississippi River prior to 1927.

Rising Tide was published in 1997, so some of it takes on new meaning, post-Katrina. For example, on page 162:

"In 1992, New Orleans was a city of 450,000 people. At its back lay Lake Pontchartrain, 22 miles across and 50 miles wide, and at its front lay the river. .... In an emergency the city would be impossible to evacuate or escape."

(BTW, between 1927 and 2005, New Orlean's population peaked at around 600,000; it fell back to about 480,000 at the time of Katrina.)

From Bookmooch I just received Hemingway's Hurricane: The Great Florida Keys Storm of 1935. I'll keep you posted.

Has anyone read anything good on the Tacoma Narrows bridge disaster? I did some research on the engineering aspects of the disaster, and I was wondering if anyone here had read anything that detailed the development of the post-collapse analysis, with an emphasis on the engineering and physics of the structure. Thanks!

>3 blackjack000:

I have long thought that Galloping Gertie (video here) was deserving of a good book. I wasn't aware of any books, but your question prompted me to do a quick search.

This article, from just a year ago, focuses on the insurance issues, which are every bit as interesting as the engineering fiasco. The author of the article mentions a book titled Catastrophe to Triumph, written by Richard S Hobbs and published in 2006 by Washington State University Press. Three copies are listed on LT, but no one has rated or reviewed it. The book appears to be a history of all of the bridges across the Tacoma Narrows, with some discussion of engineering issues.

***runs off to add book to wishlist...***

Hmmm... Sounds interesting. I recently re-sparked my interest in the subject. When I did some research into the topic, I learned that the theory that the bridge was destroyed by resonance was disproved thoroughly, most widely by a published paper in the 1990s. It was interesting, because (if I'm remembering this correctly), the paper stated that many textbooks are propagating the resonance myth. Just the other day I was flipping through a physics textbook, and there was Tacoma Narrows, with a little blurb about resonance and destruction of structures.

Oregonobsessionz, if you're interested, I can try and find that paper... here we go: http://www.ketchum.org/ajp1.html

The cumbersome navigation buttons are at the bottom of each page at that site. The paper can be a little too technical if that's not your interest. It can be pretty interesting when broken down...there's some personal sites out there where people have simplified the causes of the bridge's destruction in regular English and added some cool graphics and animations.

What's interesting (to me), was that all the complicated theories didn't hold up. All they concluded that happened was airfoil flutter. Basically, the same thing that happens when you hold up a piece of paper on each end, and blow in the middle. The middle should flutter. As the paper moves up, it creates a larger surface area that the moving air hits. It continues up, being pushed by the air, until it can't move any farther in that direction. Then, the structure pulls itself down, and the momentum drives it so the surface is pointing down. Now, the the opposite happens--the surface on top catches the air and drives the bridge even farther down (since it already had the momentum from the first oscillation). This continued with Tacoma Narrows until the movement caused too much stress on the structure, and ripped it apart.

So, it was oscillations, but it wasn't driven by the wind acting on the structure's natural frequency. That would be a really elegant answer, but it's incorrect. The recorded movement of the bridge on that morning did not match the natural frequency of the bridge. When they examined a scale model of the bridge (post-collapse), they noticed the flat plates running across the sides. These did not let wind dissipate easily through the bridge. Afterwards, they realized the need for trusses designed more as a lattice-like framework, to allow wind to pass through the bridge, and acting as little as possible on the structure.

Probably pretty dry material, but I think it's interesting.

That paper does look interesting. I will have to read it later, when I can print it out and take the time to do more than browse.

In The Great Bridge, a wonderful book on the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, David McCullough makes a great deal of the Roeblings' obsession with rigidity. They designed and built that bridge in an era when several spectacular bridge failures had occurred, and they were building at an unprecedented scale.

Since today is Labor Day, and Hurricane Gustav is smacking Louisiana around, it seems a great time to pull Storm of the Century: The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 off the shelf and actually read it.

And if Gustav wasn't enough reason, here comes Ike. How does that song go? Something, something, "second verse, a little bit louder and a little bit worse."

If that wasn't enough I went cruising B & N and came back with White Hurricane: A Great Lakes November Gale and America's Deadliest Maritime Disaster.

>9 varielle:

I will look forward to hearing what you think about it. I have seen some favorable reviews, and I finally found a copy after looking for quite a while, but it is nowhere near the top of my TBR list right now.

The Children's Blizzard described the perfect storm that instigated the formation of the national weather service.

>11 Clueless: That is a good one. I liked the way Laskin combined the story of the blizzard with the development of the weather service.

I know I have mentioned this one before, but we seem to be on a snow theme here. The White Cascade: the Great Northern Railway Disaster and America’s Deadliest Avalanche by Gary Krist is an excellent account of the 1910 avalanche in Wellington, WA, the most deadly avalanche in US history. My review is here.

TallyDi (8) wrote: "second verse, a little bit louder and a little bit worse."

My first thought when I saw Gustav pointed at Louisiana was Yogi Berra's famous "deja vu all over again." And Ike? Deja vu vu??

Yesterday I finished reading Just Seconds from the Ocean: Coastal Living in the Wake of Katrina by William Sargent. Although it was published in 2007, it somehow avoided my notice until I plucked it from the new books section of the public library.

Immediately had an opportunity to mention it at a meeting of Red Cross Community Outreach presenters.

"That was in 1821, when the Hudson and East Rivers had merged across Manhattan as far north as Canal Street." A terrifying thought to a New Yorker!

An interesting read, barely over 100 pages, with short histories of many coastal storms (including hurricanes, nor'easters, etc.) and thoughts about the impact of so many people choosing to live near the ocean. Sure, it's beautiful, but....

Hi, oregon...

I have Catastrophe to Triumph. It wasn't much to my particular tastes, so I'd be glad to let you have it if you haven't already gotten a copy. It's one of those I can't find right now, so it may take some time. Let me know!

furdog

>15 debherter:

Thanks for the offer, but I did eventually see a copy at Powell's. Looked more like a chamber of commerce type PR piece than a serious engineering discussion, so not as interesting as I had expected.

>16 oregonobsessionz: Excellent description! I couldn't put into words what I didn't like about it, but you've captured it in a nutshell.

Hi all-
Glad I found this group.
Just finished City of Refuge, fiction but a great story of Katrina.
If anyone is interested in purchasing my copy please shout.

>5 blackjack000: blackjack000 - Just saw this post. I'll have a look at the link! Thanks.

>5 blackjack000: Hi, blackjack000--

I couldn't make much out of the article, but I see your point that the flutter wasn't really caused by outside forces acting on the structure's natural frequency. So it is entirely different from the Hyatt-Regency SkyWalk except that both of them collapsed.

Thanks for the excellent info!

>6 oregonobsessionz: Has anyone been to the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.? They have a good exhibit on the Brooklyn Bridge. And a lot of other fascinating exhibits, as well.

>9 varielle: For Christmas, I got a copy of Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals; the Edmund Fitzgerald edition by William Ratigan.

I would rate it about 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

I just got from Bookmooch Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West. Looks yummy. :-o

I just won A Wall of White from the Early Reviewers group. Looks very good.

The 1969 Chicago Cubs. I know it's not what you'ld normally think of, but it was a disaster alright - I was there.

http://www.librarything.com/work/1883330

I've snagged an Early Reviewers copy of a revised book about the 1961 airplane crash that wiped out the U.S. figure skating team. Not sure how much "disaster stuff" there is but there ought to be some.

It is: Frozen in Time: The Enduring Legacy of the 1961 U.S. Figure Skating Team by Nikki Nichols

I am reading a book about the November 1942 fire at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston. It killed half the people who were in the nightclub at the time. I never realized but it also brought about a number of medical advances, such as in the treatment of burn victims, as well as for post-traumatic stress syndrome victims.

It's called Fire in the Grove: The Cocoanut Grove Tragedy and Its Aftermath by John C. Esposito.

>26 lindapanzo: Let us know what all is in there. I think I'd like to get a copy.

>27 lindapanzo: That is an excellent book. I think one of the things that fascinates me most about disasters is that they are so often the mechanism and driving force of positive change.

>27 lindapanzo:

That was a good book. It seems like we can't get any improvement or enforcement of building codes without a disaster to capture people's attention. Look at the Iroquois Theatre fire (1903), the Triangle Shirtwaist fire (1911), and the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire (1942), and you have the same issues over and over. Combustible interior finish, inadequate exit capacity, locking and/or obstruction of the few available exits, and too many people in the building.

For recent examples, see the inadequate exits in the WTC (even after the 1993 bombing) and the Station nightclub fire in Warwick, RI in 2003. Seems we never learn.

Flash floods are always good disaster reading. They are usually unexpected and totally destructive. I have a work called 'EVERYTHING IN ITS PATH: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek Flood' (1976) by Kai T. Erickson. This is about the loss of Communality after the disaster in West Virginia in 1972. It won the Sorokin Award for progress in Sociology. The New York Times called it a 'Tour de Force', powerful and haunting. I have not read it yet.
The flood would be over in a matter of minutes, but the effects on the community would linger far longer. For the survivors, the effects would never end.

I went to another Friends of the Library sale and snagged yet another hurricane book, as if I don't have enough already, but what the heck, two more weeks and we'll be in hurricane season. It is Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938.

>21 debherter: The National Building Museum has exhibits?

Oh, I've been there twice, but spent so much time looking at the architecture I barely noticed exhibits. ;-)

Setnahkt (25): I hear you! Although I'm a Mets fan, so '69 was a good year for me, but I've seen my share of disastrous sports seasons.

A few weeks ago I met someone at a Red Cross outreach event. He was wearing a New York Mets t-shirt. "Oh, you really are into disasters, aren't you?"

A classic in this field:

The San Francisco Earthquake

From Bookmooch I received Isaac's Storm: A Man, A Time and the Deadliest Hurricane in History. Me and my hurrican obsession, maybe this will ward them off.

Hi, folks! I recently purchased and read the book Boston on Fire by Stephanie Schorow. It was a fascinating account of the history of fire and firefighting in Boston.

> 2 I also read Hemingway's Hurricane last December, just before we visited the Florida Keys. (We made a stop at the hurricane memorial at Islamorada.) It's a fine book about a terrible tragedy.

Another book I'd recommend is Massachusetts Disasters by Larry Pletcher

>31 JimThomson: I have another book about the Buffalo Creek mining flood disaster. The Buffalo Creek Disaster by Gerald Stern. I haven't had a chance to read it yet. I'll keep you posted.

Every time, I read messages from this group, my "to read" list grows. I have read Fire in the Grove and in the same vein would recommend Rescue Men by Charles Kenney. It's a memoir about a family of Boston fire fighters, one of whom fought the Cocoanut Grove fire and one of whom helped with the recovery effort at the World Trade Center after 9/11. Rather than a string of adventure stories, it is more about the people who would do this sort of thing.

>38 jtlauderdale: Rescue Men sounds really interesting. I just added it to MY ever-growing Wish List. Thanks!

I've been looking for One Dead in Attic for a while, but stumbled over another Katrina book at a Friends sale yesterday, The Great Deluge.

> 40 I look forward to hearing what you think of The Great Deluge, as I haven't read it yet. But don't give up looking for One Dead in Attic. It's a unique view of the Katrina tragedy, featuring the newspaper columns of a local New Orleans journalist, Chris Rose from the days following the tragedy. My only minor complaint is, I wish he'd written "setups" for some of the items when he put them in the book, as they assumed a level of local background knowledge some of us outsiders don't have.

> 38 Talk about odd coincidences -- for some reason, the touchstone in message 38 for Rescue Men didn't work (I had to look it up through search) -- BUT, strangely, when I clicked that link, it actually led to a book I JUST finished reading Friday!! -- The Terrible Hours. I highly recommend it -- I could hardly put it down until I finished it. It's about the first "deep water" submarine rescue and the man who almost singlehandedly developed the technology for submarine rescues. Fascinating!

I just finished The Terrible Hours in May. I picked it up because I had a friend who used to be a submariner during the Carter administration when budgets were low. He relayed many of his (mis)adventures sleeping with torpedoes and dealing with fish that somehow get sucked up. I really didn't have much history of the US submarine service until The Terrible Hours.

102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers by Jim Dwyer.
I learned how much depends on state-of-the-art building technology and architecture.
The WTC was build shortly after the building requirements in New York were reduced somewhat, resulting in the concentration of all exit ways in the central column and a reduced heat protection on the load-bearing parts.
After I finished it, I just thought: *sigh*. Some of those people could still be alive...

>43 GirlFromIpanema: I know what you mean. It seems every time there's some kind of disaster, you can't help but feel what my mother always called the "shoulda, woulda, coulda" syndrome. Like the recent DC Metro crash -- of a train that the NTSB said should have (shoulda) been replaced years ago. 102 minutes sounds like a really worthwhile book. I just added it to my ever-growing "wishlist."

I just finished The Perfect Storm -- I finally got around to reading it, and it didn't disappoint me. Now I've started Isaac's Storm. (I guess I'm in a stormy mood.)

Thanks for recommending this thread to me, tymfos. I have greatly expanded my wish list. Now I have to find a way to expand my reading time! :-D

For browsing, I'd recommend Darkest Hours (published 1976), a "narrative encyclopedia of worldwide disasters from ancient times to the present." It includes lots of obscure events and some interesting statistical appendices. Air crashes, avalanches, earthquakes, fires and explosions, floods, marine disasters, mine disasters, plagues, epidemics, famines and droughts, railway wrecks, storms, volcanic eruptions, "miscellaneous disasters", war time sinkings and tabulations of war dead abound.

#46 Actually, I can't take credit for the recommendation (though I kind of seconded it). I think it was Stasia who posted the link.

Some good recent reads (

1) 3000 Degrees by Sean Flynn.

I highly recommend this account of a warehouse fire in Worcester, Massachusetts which killed 6 firefighters. (For more details, see my posted review.)

2) The Morro Castle by Hal Burton.

I recommend this a little less enthusiastically, but it was still an interesting read. It's an account of a cruise ship fire off the New Jersey shore in 1934, about which I had previously known nothing.

3( Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy by Diana Preston.

This is my current nonfiction read. So far, it has lived up to the glowing reviews I've seen of it from many fronts.

Preston gives interesting and relevant background material about WWI, the German and British navies (and their respective submarine programs), the history of trans-Atlantic passenger vessels, and the Lusitania in particular.

While describing the trans-Atlantic passage, she introduces us to passengers and members of the crew. More ominously, she introduces us to the captain and some crew of the U-boat that would sink the great ocean liner.

The account of the actual sinking and its immediate aftermath (through rescue/recovery) is gripping, chilling, and heart-rending. By utilizing the words of actual survivors and witnesses, she gives us a sense of the personality and feelings of the people who were there.

I'm now currently reading about the extended aftermath of the tragedy (the fallout in terms of world opinion and its effect on WWI). Still, the account remains well-written and engaging.

>47 Makifat: I just added Darkest Hours to my Wishlist. Thank you very much for the recommendation, Makifat.

(BTW, I apologize for typos in my last post -- but I'm not going to try to edit again! :)

Here is my review of Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy:

http://www.librarything.com/work/119443/details/47946628

Another excellent book I read recently, this one about a deadly warehouse fire, is 3000 Degrees by Sean Flynn. (Sorry if the touchstone doesn't work; it usually doesn't for this book.)

Myy review is posted here:

http://www.librarything.com/work/224673/details/47946879

This one looks interesting, The Third Man Factor: surviving the Impossible by John Geiger. It concerns the psychological phenomenon of people in extreme life threatening circumstances to believe that there is a companion who has appeared on the scene to help them through the crisis. This is apparently very common among mountain climbers, but happened to the last man to leave the World Trade Center before it crumbled and a number of other notable disasters. Here's the review link from the WSJ. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204884404574361631588827614.html
I had heard of this before but thought it was just a one off thing. The NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was in a firey crash a few years ago and when it was all over he wanted to thank the man who had reached in the window, grabbed him under the arms and pulled him out. He was told that he got himself out and when he reviewed the film there was no one there. Spooky, no?

#53, The Third Man Factor does look interesting. I will add it to my TBR list. Thanks.

Another recent addition to the disaster portion of my TBR list is Rebecca Solnit's new book, Paradise Built in Hell. This is about how communities rise up in response to disaster. She is said to talk about a number of disasters--from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to the 1917 Halifax explosion up through 9/11 and Katrina.

# 53, 54

Those books both sound interesting. Onto my wishlist they go!

I keep stumbling across reviews of interesting looking books that I don't have time to read. For you safety geeks, in the September issue of ASSE's Professional Safety magazine there is a review of Accident Prone: A History of Technology, Psychology and Misfits of the Machine Age by John C. Burnham. It seems to explore the psychology and thinking about repetitive accidents by different interested parties and how that has changed in the industrial age. The cover has a photo of an early automobile being severed by a locomotive. Charming. *off to beat accident prone employees with rolled up magazine*

Wow! I am really impressed by all the recommendations of disaster books. I never really knew I was a "disaster buff" but some of my favorite books were The Johnstown Flood, Isaac's Storm, The Devil in White City,and The Brooklyn Bridge so I definitely qualify.
Thanks for some great ideas!

I just finished Curse of the Narrows about the explosion that destroyed Halifax in 1917. Very good, with a nice variety of perspectives represented.

The CBC has a nice website about the Halifax explosion, including interactive graphics:

http://www.cbc.ca/halifaxexplosion/he2_ruins/index.html

Ooooh, cool! Thanks!

We get half of the Sunday Times delivered on Saturday. I just finished reading tomorrow's (Sunday) New York Times Book Review.

There's a review of No Way Down. I am definitely going to search for that one.

(Cross posted from Outdoor Readers)

I grabbed a copy of No Way Down when I saw it a week or so ago. Now I found another on the same incident: One Mountain Thousand Summits by Freddie Wilkinson.

Based on a quick read of the first 50 pages of each book, Graham Bowley (author of No Way Down) has no climbing experience, but he appears to be a more skilled writer. He has attempted to tell the story from the perspective of the climbers, and his book includes 14 pages of color photos.

Wilkinson is an experienced climber, who has written for a number of climbing magazines, and he provides better descriptions of the the technical aspects of the climb. He has written primarily from the perspective of the surviving Sherpas, and he emphasizes the cultural conflicts among the climbers of various backgrounds.

Thanks oregon', I'm going to look for them both. This looks like another classic pair, like The Climb vs Into Thin Air.

Hot off the presses (in 1904) is this "Memorial" account of the Captain Slocum disaster, New York's Awful Steamboat Horror: Hundreds of Women and Children Drowned and Burned to Death.

Couldn't get touchstone to cooperate, but it's available to download on Internet Archive, just in time for Christmas giving!

http://www.archive.org/details/newyorksawfulste00nort

>64 Makifat:

Thanks for that link. I just love those contemporaneous accounts of disasters and other social phenomena. Those old books on the Johnstown flood, San Francisco earthquake, sinking of the Titanic, various fires (Iroquois Theatre, Triangle shirtwaist factory, etc.), the Klondike gold rush, and various political campaigns are favorites in my library.

Last weekend, I saw one of those weather and disaster documentaries on The Weather Channel, dealing with the sinking of the Chicago Christmas tree ship on Lake Michigan.

One of the people they interviewed has written a book about this 1912 disaster. The Historic Christmas Tree Ship by Rochelle Pennington. My ILL copy just arrived so I can't comment on the quality of the book yet.

This month, I've read The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin, about the terrible blizzard which struck the upper plains states in January of 1888; also Nights of Ice by Spike Walker, about shipwrecks and rescues in Alaskan waters.

The Children's Blizzard was outstanding, and provided lots of food for thought. Nights of Ice is a good, quick, exciting read.

I just finished 33 Men: inside the miraculous survival and rescue of the Chilean miners by Jonathan Franklin. I thought it was very well written.

This Disaster Buffs group has been quiet for too long! Looks like the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking passed without a word here.

I've read several books that fit into this group since I posted last:

The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough -- I rarely do non-fiction on audio book, but McCullough's excellent narrative is so easy to follow, audio worked for this book. A real classic!

Drowning in Oil: BP & the Reckless Pursuit of Profit by Loren C. Steffy dealt with the Deepwater Horizon fiasco as part of the history of a corporate culture that has long courted disaster, dating back to the Texas City Refinery fire and even long before that.

Under a Flaming Sky by Daniel James Brown was a breathtaking account of the Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894. I was totally unfamiliar with this disaster.

I read an Early Reader edition of Voyagers of the Titanic, and found it rather tedious -- though it appeared to be very well researched, and it approached the tragedy from a different angle than anything I've read before.

Just stumbled on this group as I was looking for other opinions about A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Solnit reports on the people helping each other aspect, after noticing many people, a couple of years after Katrina, commenting on the pleasure of helping others and working together. I think it's an important book. Also talks about the problems and tragedies caused by govt. intervention. That is, if you ask a surgeon for advice he will say surgery will fix it. If you call a cop, he will say shoot the "looters" rather than help them distribute the food from the grocery store in a crisis. Very interesting book.

My favorite disaster book so far has been Triangle the Fire that Changed America by David von Drehle which was given to me by a friend. Very interesting read about the politics, unions, safety as well as the personal stories involved in this tragedy. Highly recommended, good reminder of why we have unions in this country.

Great group!

I just finished A weekend in September by John Edward Weems, about the 1900 Galveston hurricane. Not quite as awesome as Erik Larson's Isaac's Storm, but very good in its own right.

Here's an article from the Wall Street Journal that recommends the five best books in their opinion on catastrophes. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444165804578010382216655120.html?K...

Thanks Van, I'm familiar with the others, but Bloodlands is going atop my TBR pile.

>72 varielle:

I have most of those books, but I had never heard of Plagues and Peoples. That one just went on my wishlist.

A memorable disaster book I found poignant:

3703. To Sleep With the Angels The Story of a Fire, by David Cowan and John Kuenster (read 22 Feb 2003)

I have that one waiting on the shelf.

75> Thanks for reminding me of To Sleep with the Angels. I'm reading it now. Very good book, very tragic story.

I just finished The Collapse of Richmond's Church Hill Tunnel by Walter S. Griggs, Jr. The book isn't perfect, but it's a quick read about a little-known (at least to non-Virginians) disaster.

Since I lived through The Great West Virginia Flood of 1985, I acquired both books edited by Bob Teets. Seems I like the sub-category, particularly if they are old books.

I've also got the 1889 History of the Johnstown Flood, subtitled: "Including all the fearful record; the breaking of the South Fork Dam; the sweeping out of the Conemaugh Valley; the overthrow of Johnstown; the massing of the wreck at the railroad bridge; escapes, rescues, searches for survivors and the dead; relief organizations, stupendous charities, etc., etc. ... with full accounts also of the destruction of the Susquehanna and Juanita Rivers, and the Bald Eagle Creek. Illustrated."

1937 Hungry Waters

1913 Our National Calamity of Fire, Flood and Tornado, subtitled "The appalling loss of life, the terrible suffering of the homeless, the struggles for safety, and the noble heroism of those who risked life to save loved ones; the unprecedented loss of property, resulting in the laying waste of flourishing cities and towns. How the Whole Nation Joined in the Work of Relief. Thrilling Stories with Photographs and Sketches"