The Greatest Disaster Stories Ever Told

I discovered this book last fall. I was only interested in one story, but I got engrossed in the book and read the entire thing in a couple of nights. What especially sticks out is the excerpt on the Our Lady of the Angels fire. I had only a vague idea of this terrible fire, which happened in 1958, two years before I was born. After reading an excerpt from To Sleep with the Angels I quickly went out and bought that book. I have greatest disaster stories 4 stars, as I agree that Underwood could have added more about the aftermath, but it's still worth reading-- you can do further research on your own if you find a particularly interesting.

This is not a good book for those of us who like to read about catastrophes from a comfortable psychological distance. The editor, Lamar Underwood has selected seventeen harrowing excerpts from books and articles grouped under the titles, "Terrorist Attacks," "The Crucible of Fire: Tragedy, Escape, and Remembrance," "Natural Causes: When Time and Luck Run Out," "Disaster at Sea: Victims, Heroes, and Doomed Voyages," and "The Hand of Man: Of Failure and Catastrophe." He does a masterful job of bringing you in, up close and personal. I don't think you'll be able to shield yourself from the horror of the victims' plights, most especially in last section of this book: "Flights that Failed: Aviation's Darkest Hours." It was not a good idea to read this book a week before I plan to fly to London. I most especially recommend that you do NOT read "The Greatest Disaster Stories Ever Told" while actually seated on a plane. I had already read a couple of the books that Underwood used as sources, and so I can personally testify that he did a tremendous job of selecting the most frightening, heart-wrenching parts of "Isaac's Storm" and "The Johnstown Flood" to include in his anthology. Don't be surprised if you find yourself searching out the editor's original book selections, in order to discover the ultimate fate of the victims. I need to find Arthur Weingarten's book, "The Sky is Falling" (1977 - Grosset & Dunlap), excerpted here, to learn the outcome of a day in New York City in 1945 that foreshadowed 9/11--the day that a B-25 bomber crashed into the Empire State Building. Weingarten's account of an elevator operator who hurtled 76 stories down into the basement of the Empire State Building, after the six braided steel cables of her elevator were sliced through by the B-25's engine, which then broke through the elevator's roof, is especially terrifying (Claustrophobes, do not read this story!): "Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of the red lights flashing on the panel indicator. 76...75...74...The numbers were running into a vertical blur...she flung herself across the car, raising her hands above her head to ward off the flaming debris that poured through the hole in the roof." What provisions were made for the victims of the Bhopal Catastrophe? What was the ultimate fate of the survivors of the 'Lusitania' and the 'U.S.S. Indianapolis'? Did Betty, the elevator operator survive her crushing, fiery descent? This book raises many more questions than it answers.