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 Read more…