Earthquakes. Hurricanes. Meteorites. Tsunamis. The natural world is full of powerful forces that can kill you in an instant. Hiding in your closet won't save you. Clinging to your roof is a good idea, until your roof is swept out to sea. When faced with a natural disaster, sometimes the only thing to do is close your eyes and hang on. See how these people survived in just that way.
Disaster strikes. A ship goes down, a plane crashes, a party of travellers is cut off. But when the panic and confusion subside and the dead are counted, the survivors must find a way to keep surviving. And in desperation, unconstrained by law or conventional authority, the tactics they resort to can be both horrifying and ultimately self-destructive. Learmonth and Tabakoff outline the physical and neurological changes that typically affect the victims of disaster. Then, using true stories from history as case studies, they investigate the scenario famously imagined by William Golding in Lord of the Flies and borne out by the extraordinary Robbers Cave experiments of the 1950s. As this fascinating book unfolds the awful truth becomes clear. In extremis, humans are capable of a swift descent into murderous savagery that is both hard to believe - and impossible to forget. Eleanor Learmonth has worked as a teacher and freelance journalist in Japan and Australia. She has a reputation as a magnet for natural disasters. Jenny Tabakoff has been a senior journalist in Australia and Britain for The Times, the Sydney Morning Herald and AAP. She is the co-author of Australian Style. Eleanor and Jenny live in Sydney with their husbands and children. They met at the school gate. 'Succinct yet considered, accessible yet authoritative, Learmonth and Tabakoff strike a happy balance between scholarliness and readability throughout...cogent presentation of some truly harrowing subject matter, which less responsible hands might have milked for vulgar sensationalism.' Bookseller and Publisher 'Well researched and well argued, lively and energetic, No Mercy is full of insights into leadership, loyalty, sacrifice and compassion that will challenge readers to wonder what they might do if similarly tested.' Booktopia Buzz 'Sometimes adversity brings out the best in people, at other times it does the opposite. This is about those other times...excellent reading when you’re safely at home.' Weekend Herald 'A fascinating post-mortem of how certain groups manage to survive while others flailed about in drunken, murderous chaos.' Daily Telegraph 'This fascinating book shines light on an awful truth.' Get Reading
From the author of the New York Times-bestselling I Survived series come four harrowing true stories of survival, featuring real kids in the midst of epic disasters. REAL KIDS. REAL DISASTERS.The author of the New York Times-bestselling I Survived series brings us more harrowing true stories of real kids up against terrible forces of nature. From fourteen-year-old lone survivor of the shark attacks of 1916, to nine-year-old who survived the Peshtigo fire of 1871 (which took place on the very same day in history as the Great Chicago Fire!), here are four unforgettable survivors who managed to beat the odds.Read their incredible stories:The Deadly Shark Attacks of 1916The Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871A Venomous Box Jellyfish AttackThe Eruption of Mount Tambora
True accounts of major disasters in Washington history are retold in this engagingly written collection. From The Seattle fire of 1889, the 1910 train avalanche on Stevens Pass, and the 1915 Ravensdale Coal Mine explosion, the 1955 airliner crash in residential Riverton, to the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption, Washington has been home to some of the nation's most dramatic moments. Each story reveals not only the circumstances surrounding the disaster and the magnitude of the devastation but also the courage and ingenuity displayed by those who survived and the heroism of those who helped others, often risking their own lives in rescue efforts.
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The epic account of the storm on the summit of Mt. Everest that claimed five lives and left countless more—including Krakauer's—in guilt-ridden disarray. "A harrowing tale of the perils of high-altitude climbing, a story of bad luck and worse judgment and of heartbreaking heroism." —PEOPLE A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that "suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down." He was wrong. By writing Into Thin Air, Krakauer may have hoped to exorcise some of his own demons and lay to rest some of the painful questions that still surround the event. He takes great pains to provide a balanced picture of the people and events he witnessed and gives due credit to the tireless and dedicated Sherpas. He also avoids blasting easy targets such as Sandy Pittman, the wealthy socialite who brought an espresso maker along on the expedition. Krakauer's highly personal inquiry into the catastrophe provides a great deal of insight into what went wrong. But for Krakauer himself, further interviews and investigations only lead him to the conclusion that his perceived failures were directly responsible for a fellow climber's death. Clearly, Krakauer remains haunted by the disaster, and although he relates a number of incidents in which he acted selflessly and even heroically, he seems unable to view those instances objectively. In the end, despite his evenhanded and even generous assessment of others' actions, he reserves a full measure of vitriol for himself. This updated trade paperback edition of Into Thin Air includes an extensive new postscript that sheds fascinating light on the acrimonious debate that flared between Krakauer and Everest guide Anatoli Boukreev in the wake of the tragedy. "I have no doubt that Boukreev's intentions were good on summit day," writes Krakauer in the postscript, dated August 1999. "What disturbs me, though, was Boukreev's refusal to acknowledge the possibility that he made even a single poor decision. Never did he indicate that perhaps it wasn't the best choice to climb without gas or go down ahead of his clients." As usual, Krakauer supports his points with dogged research and a good dose of humility. But rather than continue the heated discourse that has raged since Into Thin Air's denouncement of guide Boukreev, Krakauer's tone is conciliatory; he points most of his criticism at G. Weston De Walt, who coauthored The Climb, Boukreev's version of events. And in a touching conclusion, Krakauer recounts his last conversation with the late Boukreev, in which the two weathered climbers agreed to disagree about certain points. Krakauer had great hopes to patch things up with Boukreev, but the Russian later died in an avalanche on another Himalayan peak, Annapurna I. In 1999, Krakauer received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters--a prestigious prize intended "to honor writers of exceptional accomplishment." According to the Academy's citation, "Krakauer combines the tenacity and courage of the finest tradition of investigative journalism with the stylish subtlety and profound insight of the born writer. His account of an ascent of Mount Everest has led to a general reevaluation of climbing and of the commercialization of what was once a romantic, solitary sport; while his account of the life and death of Christopher McCandless, who died of starvation after challenging the Alaskan wilderness, delves even more deeply and disturbingly into the fascination of nature and the devastating effects of its lure on a young and curious mind."
Seventy-foot waves batter a torn life raft 250 miles out to sea in one of the world's most dangerous places: the Gulf Stream. Hanging on to the raft are three men: a Canadian, a Brit, and their captain, JP de Lutz, a dual citizen of the United States and France. Their capsized forty-seven-foot sailboat has disappeared below the tempestuous sea. The giant waves repeatedly toss the men out of their tiny vessel, and JP, with nine broken ribs, is hypothermic and on the verge of death. Trying to reach these survivors before it's too late are four brave Coast Guardsmen battling hurricane-force winds in their Jayhawk helicopter. With waves reaching an astounding eighty feet, lowering the helicopter into such chaos will be extremely dangerous. The pilots wonder if they have a realistic chance of saving the sailors or even retrieving their own rescue swimmer. Soon the rescuers find themselves in almost as much trouble as the survivors, facing one life-and-death moment after the next against the towering seas. Also caught in the storm are three other boats, each one in a Mayday situation. Of the ten people on these boats, only six will ever see land again. This middle-grade adaptation of the author's 2014 work of the same title tells the story of the four intrepid Coast Guardsmen who braved this ruthless storm in the hopes of saving them.
This collection of survival stories recounts the harrowing true experiences of people across the globe who faced certain death—and survived. The stories in this riveting volume seem too unbelievable to be true. Lost individuals facing the most severe natural disasters, the most dangerous situations, and the most inhospitable conditions . . . somehow making it out alive. From plane crashes and sinking ships to surviving in freezing forests and scorching deserts, this anthology includes some of the most famous, unbelievable tales of beating the odds. This book features gripping tales of sheer bravery and quick thinking, including: Juliane Koepcke, the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Peruvian Amazon Jose Salvador Alvarenga, who floated for thirteen months alone in the Pacific ocean Aron Ralston, who cut off his arm to escape the canyon he’d been trapped in Lincoln Hall, who was abandoned on Mount Everest . . . and many more.
From shark attacks and blazing airships to exploding spacecraft and sinking submarines, find out what made the difference between life and death in these ten thrilling stories of survival. Gripping and engaging for readers who prefer real life to fiction.
An exploration of loss and survival by one of America's finest nautical writers After the Storm is John Rousmaniere's most ambitious work ever, the unique expression of a master storyteller and authority on seamanship who has survived storms at sea. Each of the book's stories of seafaring disastermany little known, all exciting and of deep human interestpresents a broad human drama. Rousmaniere tells of the hopes and choices that put these sailors in harm's way. He takes readers into the gales themselves with authoritative knowledge of horrific weather and the split-second decisions that seamen must make. Finally, he explores the consequences of these disasters for survivors, rescuers, families, communities, and in some cases nations. The pursuit of these elusive strands leads the reader deep into our ambivalent relationship with the sea as both "destroyer and preserver."
