Favorite Articles Issue 2 – Disasters

Disasters

This week I gathered three articles that highlight disasters. One disaster is entirely man made, and the other two are forces of nature. However, it is the human component of each story that makes them unforgettable.

Fallout

John Hersey’s (1946) “Hiroshima” gives a vivid account of the horrors suffered by the atomic bomb. This disaster, born out of war, bears scars inflicted by human hands (a scientific-technological elite consisting of physicists, chemists, politicians, and generals), but Hersey’s article focuses on the survivors to put the human toll into perspective. Like no other writer, Hersey humanizes the other and makes their pain our pain.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1946/08/31/hiroshima

Wave

“The Clock is Ticking: Inside the Worst US Maritime Disaster in Decades” by William Langewiesche (2018) details the disappearance of a cargo ship, the El Faro, after it sailed into the eye of a hurricane. Langewiesche puts together emergency distress audio recordings, interviews with experts, and information gleaned from the ship’s recovered data recorder to cast light on what may have happened and who may have been at fault.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/inside-el-faro-the-worst-us-maritime-disaster-in-decades

Flood

Elaina Plott (2017) provides a harrowing account of a flood that forever changed a small town in West Virginia. Her article “The Billionaire and the Flood: How a Tragedy Transformed the Greenbrier Resort and the Blue-Collar Town that Depended on it” explores small town America and gives insight into the bonds that tie together a community.

The Billionaire and the Flood: How a Tragedy Transformed the Greenbrier Resort and the Blue-Collar Town that Depended on It