True Natural Disasters

A raging wildfire burns thousands of homes. A violent earthquake creates a giant tsunami that destroys countless lives. A giant tornado wipes a small town off the map. Discover the true stories of people who survived these terrible disasters and lived to tell the tale in this book from the Fighting to Survive series.

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 ...

2015 saw the worst American maritime disaster in decades. The captain of the SS El Faro commanded his crew to sail straight into a hurricane. The ship sank and all 33 crew members died. The sinking raised troubling questions: Why did the captain choose to sail into the hurricane? Why did no one on board or on shore stop him? And why was such an old and heavily loaded ship even allowed on the water? The crew of the SS El Faro is gone, but their haunting final hours were preserved by the ship’s black box.

San Francisco, 5:12 A.M., and the First Hour of the 1906 Earthquake What happens when an entire city loses trust in the ground beneath its feet? At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, San Francisco awoke to one of the most devastating natural disasters in American history. In less than a minute, homes shattered, hotels collapsed, streets split apart, and thousands of lives changed forever. But the earthquake was only the beginning. In The Minute the City Broke, historian and storyteller Keegan Wright takes readers deep inside the first sixty minutes of the catastrophe—minute by minute, street by...

How do you survive when an ordinary day explodes into a battle against nature's most terrifying power? When the sky turns a malevolent green and the roar of a thousand freight trains is the last thing you hear before your world is ripped apart? Tornado: Twisted Tales invites you into the heart of fifteen unforgettable storms through a collection of gripping short stories. These aren't just tales of destruction; they are visceral accounts of human endurance, the desperate courage of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances, and the unpredictable twists of fate that unfold when ...

Before becoming America's first-ever female network chief meteorologist or appearing on Dancing with the Stars, ABC News's Ginger Zee checked herself into a mental health hospital.

Natural Disaster: I Cover Them. I Am One. is Ginger's heartbreaking, hilarious, and harshly honest life story - from Dickhead's (you won't soon forget that name) deck on Lake Michigan to her storm-chasing dream at ABC News.

In this gripping narrative history, Al Roker from NBC’s Today and the Weather Channel vividly examines the deadliest natural disaster in American history—a haunting and inspiring tale of tragedy, heroism, and resilience that is full of lessons for today’s new age of extreme weather. On the...

The 1990s marked a profound turning point in climate history, a decade when the global atmosphere tested the absolute limits of modern architecture, technology, and emergency planning. From the devastating structural failures of Hurricane Andrew in Florida to the landscape-altering deluges of Hurricane Mitch in Central America, historic tropical cyclones exposed a critical reality: the gap between engineering theory and raw survival is narrower than we think. Hurricane: Deadly Storms of the 1990s delivers an authoritative, research-driven chronicle of the most formidable weather events of ...

Five short stories that give glimpses into the lives of Griffin, Jorie, and the other characters from Second Nature.

A cautionary tale for a new era of megafires, Paradise is the gripping true story of a town wiped off the map and the determination of its people to rise again. The inspiration for the Apple Original Film The Lost Bus, starring Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera “A tour de force story of...

Hurricane Katrina. 2005. Everybody saw the people stranded on the rooftops. Nobody came looking for the ones who stayed on purpose. They could've gotten rescued. They passed. It sounds insane now. It felt reasonable at the time. Six friends rode out Katrina in a house in New Orleans — a tight-knit bunch of servers and bartenders, plus two very patient dogs. They stocked up on beer, threw a hurricane party, and toasted the storm coming in. When the levees failed and the water came up, they watched the helicopters circle from the roof and figured somebody out there needed them more. They ...

Book 9 in the Our Scary History series, this volume continues the focus on real events that ripped the land apart and left permanent marks on history. Reports and accounts from deadly volcanoes, floods, earthquakes, and disasters that reshaped entire regions between 1750 and 1930, drawn from historical records of the time. Many of these events occurred before modern rescue equipment, trained emergency crews, or coordinated relief systems existed. In avalanches, floods, collapses, and sinkholes, entire groups of people sometimes vanished without trace. Survivors reported hearing voices ...

Carter Morelli had a plan when he left London: deliver the wildlife photographer and complete his secret mission. Except a lethal enemy has watched their every move. They tampered with the plane, leaving them stranded on a deserted island. And they kidnapped June Porter, the innocent photographer. In order to save her, Carter must confront the mysterious man in the jungle. Who is he? Savior or betrayer? He has no choice but to face the greatest enemy of all: the powerful feelings that draw him toward both June and the man in the jungle. Those feelings might kill them all.

A deeply moving romance based on the Boxing Day tsunami of December 2004. From HarperCollins and Harlequin author Becky Wicks... At twelve-years-old, Isla and Ben are strangers until their family vacations in Thailand bring them together. In the days that follow, their rare connection blossoms into something magical, framed by the shimmering ocean. But on Boxing Day morning, a giant tsunami tears through their paradise, leaving them both missing, presumed dead. For over twenty years they’ve lived separate lives, haunted by the same disaster, never knowing the other survived. But when a ...

Christchurch, New Zealand. September 2010. A sleeping city becomes a city under siege. In the early hours of the morning came the noise of a freight train and a ferocious shaking the likes of which this South Island city had never before experienced. A 7.1 magnitude earthquake came without warning or prejudice and transformed a city forever, setting off a string of devastating events that were to have a lifelong impact on all who experienced them. This is a personal account of the lasting effects of that day and the effects of all the earthquakes that were to follow. This is the story of ...

Oops! When Nature Goes Wrong is packed with real-life nature mishaps, surprising discoveries, wild animal behavior, and extreme weather events, making it a fun and fascinating read for kids ages 8–12. Want your child to explore animals, weather, oceans, and amazing Earth facts in a fun and engaging way? Need quick, bite-sized nature stories perfect for bedtime, road trips, or family reading? This is a fun nature facts and trivia book for curious kids who love asking why. Why Kids Love This Book • Big wow moments: Real nature surprises and wild facts that make kids say, “No way!” •...

In late August 2005, authorities in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, read the warning signs and instructed residents to leave ahead of the approaching storm known as Hurricane Katrina—and most people did as they were told. But for a few stalwarts, including Joseph Bellande and his wife, Linda, fleeing with their lives wasn’t the obvious choice. With a sophisticated disaster preparedness plan and plenty of experience with hurricanes and tropical storms, Joseph and Linda decided to shelter in place at their St. Bernard Parish home just outside of New Orleans. This decision proves nearly ...

A gripping full-cast dramatisation of Japan’s 2011 nuclear emergency, narrated by Romola Garai When a tsunami hit Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant in March 2011, surging past defences and flood reactors, it triggered the worst nuclear incident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. This...

As gripping as it is gruesome, How to Solve a Murder is a fascinating insight into the career of a pathologist told by experts in the field. Includes a foreword from Dr Richard Shepherd, bestselling author of Unnatural Causes. FRACTURED SKULLS. GAS MASKS. BRAIN BUCKETS. VATS OF ACID. PICKLED...

A THIRST IN BABYLON is a fact-based novel relating the events leading up to the St. Francis Dam disaster in 1928, near Los Angeles. It follows the life of William Mulholland, chief engineer of the Los Angeles Water Company, who spent most of his fifty years with the company searching for new sources of water to accommodate the needs of a rapidly growing population in a city that he had grown to love. Several of those years were spent in the construction of an aqueduct that would traverse 240 miles of desert, and tunnel through a mountain range, to reach its final destination in Los Angeles....