Calamity! Podcast

On September 29, 2015, tropical storm Joaquin made several surprising moves, baffling weather forecasters, and sealing the fate of El Faro, an American cargo ship, on its route to Puerto Rico.

In 1989, 96 football fans lost their lives due to crushing at a match. It took nearly 20 years, however, for the full story to come to light.

What started as a plan for an idyllic new neighborhood near Niagara Falls ended in pollution, evacuation, and disaster decades later.

A highly televised, much-anticipated launch turned into tragedy when an O-ring failed on the Challenger Shuttle in 1986.

In 2010, the entire world watched as rescue efforts were made to save the lives of 33 men trapped underground in the Atacama Desert. It was a herculean task of collaboration and problem-solving, motivated by a deep sense hope - both above ground and below. 

Disaster struck the North End neighborhood of Boston in January 1919 when unseasonably warm weather caused a poorly designed, overfilled storage tank full of molasses to explode. The wave of sticky goo crushed nearby buildings and engulfed unfortunate by-standers.

Local Italians were expecting a landslide in 1963 near the Vajont River, but no one anticipated how large it ultimately became, nor the mega-tsunami it created.

The deadliest oil rig explosion in history occurred in 1988 off the coast of Scotland.

On May 6, 1937, a German airship called the Hindenburg was about to land in New Jersey when disaster struck. It had crossed the Atlantic carrying nearly 100 passengers without incident, and was infamously photographed floating over Manhattan, but stormy weather and several unforeseen factors sealed its fate.

In 1944, one of the most deadly structure fires in U.S. history took circus spectators by surprise in Hartford, Connecticut. War efforts and a packed performance scheduled were contributing factors to the destruction, but thankfully the city's quick response and preparedness helped the relief efforts considerably. 

Kilauea is Hawaii’s youngest and most active volcano. After slowly building up momentum for years, a violent eruption in 2018 displaced 2,000 people, destroyed 700 structures, and changed the coastline of the island!

A delayed start and record-setting snowfall contributed to the misfortune of the Donner Party as they traversed the Oregon Trail in 1846.

The first major nuclear power plant disaster took the world by surprise in 1986. Business and government leaders were poorly informed and slow to react, but several groups of people took heroic action and save many lives. 

When Flight 232 lost all hydraulic power, it’s fate should have been sealed. Instead, the experience and quick thinking of the crew helped save over a hundred lives.

In 1894 over 200,000 acres burned in Minnesota during a fast-moving fire storm.

The Bermuda Triangle earned a reputation for disaster after centuries of unsolved mysteries, sunken ships, and missing passengers.

Three separate, yet connected disasters strike the city of Lisbon in 1755. Surprisingly, these calamities forever change Lisbon’s fate as a city - for the better!

Disaster strikes the crew of the Indianapolis on their voyage back to the States after completing a mission during World War II.

A freak rain storm and poor environmental planning lead to devastation in Pennsylvania.

A perfect storm results in devastating loss for one small town in the 1930s.