Extreme Disaster

Normalcy is a fragile thing. For the people in these twenty real-life accounts, it shattered in an instant. What happens when the ground opens up, the sky falls, or a wall of fire consumes everything in its path? When the mundane world of deadlines and daily routines is replaced by a desperate fight for the next breath? SURVIVING - Disasters places you directly into the heart of catastrophe. Journey alongside ordinary people—parents, teachers, and commuters—thrown into the most extreme situations imaginable. From catastrophic tsunamis and terrifying wildfires to sudden building ...

When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin his long, dangerous descent from 29,028 feet, twenty other climbers were...

Unlock the secrets of survival with this riveting expedition into the science of disaster—now revised and updated to address the pandemic, the role of social media in disaster response, and more—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Smartest Kids in the World Disaster can come in...

Coach Jack Ryland knows the signs of a storm, but he has never seen a barometer drop like this. In the small town of Pine Rock, a freak heatwave is about to collide with an arctic front, creating an atmospheric bomb that defies every model. When the sirens fail and the grid goes down, the first wedge destroys Main Street. But the wind is only the beginning. As the dust settles, the temperature plummets. The polar jet stream has fractured, burying the wreckage in a flash freeze that turns the town into a tomb of ice and steel. Trapped in a bank vault with forty students, Jack must keep them ...

The storm of the century is tearing the coast apart. But the deadliest threat is locked inside. Inside a coastal clinic, nurse Tara is fighting a losing battle against the rising Atlantic. Fifty-seven people are trapped with her. The power is dead. The emergency generator is failing. She has a premature newborn to keep alive and her teenage daughter to protect. Then the real nightmare begins. Tara's estranged and dangerous husband has taken shelter inside. As the storm surge floods the lower levels and forces everyone into the claustrophobic dark, he uses the panic to his advantage—...

The storm isn’t the only thing that kills. When a supercell touches down across the American Midwest, seasoned storm chasers race to capture its fury. But as the skies darken and the winds rise, a violent gang of looters follows the destruction—robbing, hunting, and silencing anyone in their way. Caught between the storm and the savages, a scattered group of chasers must survive tornadoes, betrayal, and chaos on the open road. As towns are shredded and secrets exposed, only one thing is certain: not everyone will make it out alive. Perfect for fans of Twister, Into the Storm, and ...

The water is rising. The doors are locked. When Category 4 Hurricane Iris slams into the Louisiana coast, Port Mercy High School becomes the final refuge for 160 stranded residents. Disgraced disaster manager Grant Mercer knows the aging concrete building is their only defense against the catastrophic surge. But the refuge is a trap. The emergency supplies have been systematically stripped. The radios are dead. And as the muddy floodwaters breach the first floor, Grant makes a horrifying discovery: the exit doors have been chained and padlocked from the outside. Corrupt officials have sold ...

The first tremor cracked the rock. The second unleashed hell. Park Ranger Ryan Voss knows the inner gorge better than anyone. When a massive fault line collapses deep below the tourist trails, he leads a desperate rescue mission into the newly opened depths. They expect to find trapped hikers. They find a sealed ecosystem that has evolved in complete darkness for sixty six million years. Now Ryan and a handful of survivors are trapped inside a glowing subterranean labyrinth. They are out of water and running out of ammunition. Something colossal is hunting them through the caverns. It is ...

What if the most powerful weapon in history wasn’t a sword, a cannon, or a bomb… …but the weather? Most history books will tell you who won and who lost. Almost none will tell you why. And the answer is often hiding in plain sight—in the fog, the storms, the freezing cold, and the scorching heat that arrived uninvited and rewrote the outcome of some of the most famous battles ever fought. That’s exactly what this book uncovers. Fog of War: The Deadly Mists, Blinding Storms, and Freak Weather Events That Decided History’s Most Famous Battles reveals the invisible force no general...

The ice held a secret for ten thousand years. Now, it’s awake. When a high-altitude corporate retreat at an isolated Rocky Mountain lodge is severed from the outside world by a catastrophic whiteout storm, the survivors think their biggest threat is the plummeting temperature. They are wrong. Deep in the abandoned underground research tunnels beneath the ski station, something ancient and hungry has been thawed from the permafrost. It is not a myth. It is Arctodus simus—the giant short-faced bear, an apex predator standing twelve feet tall and built for relentless slaughter. As the ...

The ocean was never empty. It was waiting. For forty-three elite passengers, the maiden voyage of the Aurelia was supposed to be the ultimate luxury experience: a front-row seat to the Mariana Trench from behind three inches of aerospace-grade polymer. For marine systems engineer Nora Caldwell, it was a rushed safety inspection she never should have signed off on. At one thousand meters down, the champagne is still pouring when the first impact hits. It isn’t a structural failure. It isn’t a seismic event. Something massive, ancient, and perfectly adapted to the crushing blackness has ...

A stunning account of a colossal wildfire and a panoramic exploration of the rapidly changing relationship between fire and humankind from the award-winning, best-selling author of The Tiger and The Golden Spruce “Riveting, spellbinding, astounding on every page…Captures the majesty and...

Narrated by the author: Experience the Southern California wildfires through Jacob Soboroff’s eyes—and voice. New York Times Bestseller and #1 Los Angeles Times Bestseller A "gripping, unshakeable firsthand account" (San Francisco Chronicle) of the firestorm that consumed Los Angeles, from...

When the sky turns dark and the winds pick up, it can be hard to know what to do to stay safe during a tornado. "Storm Watch: A Guide to Recognizing and Surviving Tornado Weather" is the essential guide to help you prepare for, recognize, and survive tornadoes. In this comprehensive guide, you'll learn how to recognize the signs of tornado weather, including changes in the sky, wind, temperature, and humidity. You'll also discover how to use weather forecasts, radar, and other tools to predict and track tornadoes, so you can be prepared before they strike. But recognizing tornado weather is...

From national bestselling author and retired Navy SEAL Clint Emerson comes the essential guide for surviving today’s emergencies—from navigating in the wild to staying alive in any disaster. These 100 skills, adapted for civilians from actual field experiences of special forces operations...

A historic blizzard was supposed to be the worst of it. Then the electrical grid went completely black. Former search-and-rescue pilot David Rourke is trapped in a remote mountain lodge when a devastating cyberattack wipes out power and communications across the nation. As temperatures plummet dangerously below zero, the freezing guests must rely on David to navigate the brutal elements. But the freezing cold is only the first danger. Desperate men are converging on the lodge, led by someone willing to kill to secure resources for his own people. They will breach the walls by any means ...

An Instant New York Times Bestseller! New York Times best-selling journalist Jeff Goodell presents an important examination of the impact that temperature rise will have on our lives and on our planet, offering a vital new perspective on where we are headed, how we can prepare, and what is at...

When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin his long, dangerous descent from 29,028 feet, twenty other climbers were...

The rain never stops. The world is drowning. Survival is everything. When the Rain Came is the first YA book in an all-new, action-packed dystopian adventure series by New York Times bestselling author Matt Eicheldinger. A #8 Publishers Weekly Bestseller! “If we stay here, if we keep wandering...

The saga of the greatest tornado chaser who ever lived: a tale of obsession and daring and an extraordinary account of humanity’s high-stakes race to understand nature’s fiercest phenomenon from Brantley Hargrove, “one of today’s great science writers” (The Washington Post). At the...