Claris Explosion Vs Great Storm

On the morning of December 6, 1917, a tragic disaster prevailed itself in the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. During WW1, the cause of this tragedy was the collision of two ships; the Norwegian vessel SS Imo and the Belgian steamer, the Mont Blanc which occurred in front of the Halifax port. Halifax played a crucial role during the war because it was deemed the docking station where soldiers and supplies were sent overseas. Essentially, The Halifax Explosion was the largest blast in Canadian history, which in turn caused rigorous turmoil throughout the nation; despite such devastation, alleviation teams came to help seatone Halifax.

February 15th, 1898, the USS Maine was hit with a mine as it sat in the Havana Harbor. There is large speculation to whether that is the truth or not. Over the years it is still a topic of debate as of what caused the explosion. Some believe that the Spaniards did it, others believe it was a clumsy mistake of misplaced ammo, others believe it was a spontaneous coal fire that caught a box of ammunition on fire. No matter the cause, the loss of the ship and 260 of her crew was devastating to America at the time and led to strong feelings of dislike towards the Spaniards, leading to the Spanish-American war of 1898. The theories behind the explosion of the USS Maine is mainly focused around two ideas, there are many angles that can be viewed for the cause of this disaster and its fueling of the war that will be examined in this paper.

Introduction. On 06 January 2005, a cargo train carrying a massive amount of chlorine spilled in Graniteville, South Carolina creating panic and indeed chaos to both citizens and emergency managers on how to properly respond to the hazardous materials released from the train wreckage. The people of the small rural town of Graniteville located just outside of Aiken, South Carolina, where caught in their sleep when Freight train 192 traveling approximately 47 mph struck other consignments spilling a dangerous amount of chlorine gas into the atmosphere. As a result of this disaster, 5,400 individuals were evacuated from their homes whiling causing nine death. The magnitude of such disaster was one that would change any town or city forever.

April 19, 1995, 9:02 a.m: a bomb was set off beneath the Alfred P. Murrah Building. The bomb damaged the structural support beams and the Northern support columns. Half of the building collapsed. 168 people died (Cook 5). Eric McKisick, a district manager, recalls the incident, ¨I made an assumption that, hey, everybody is out, everybody is good, and I left at that point. It wasn't ´till much later that I saw the devastation and understood they didn't respond because they couldn't.” Not only were there a large number of casualties, 300 people were also injured, some of whom were physically impaired for the rest of their life. A child who was in the building at the time of the explosion states, “I have no recollection of that day, but I’m reminded everyday about it because of my breathing problems (Brandes, Heide, Schapiro).”

On the afternoon of March 25, 1911, a fire broke out in the 10-floor Asch Building, a block east of Manhattan's Washington Square. This is where 500 mostly young immigrant girls were producing shirts for the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. Within minutes, it spread to consume the building's upper three stories. Firemen at the scene were unable to rescue those trapped inside: their ladders weren't tall enough. Exits were locked, and the narrow fire escapes were inadequate. Panicked, many jumped from the windows to their deaths. People on the street watched in horror. The flames were under control in less than a half hour, but 146 people perished, 123 of them women. It was the worst disaster in the city's history.

The source of what became known as the “Great Molasses Flood” was a 50-foot-tall steel holding tank located on Commercial Street in Boston’s North End. On January 15, 1919, a crowded section of Boston was rocked by a massive tidal wave--not of water, but of molasses. The bizarre deluge came after a molasses holding tank burst and sent 2.3 million gallons of the dark-brown syrup swirling through the city streets. 21 people were killed and over 150 people were injured. (The Great)

The people were effected not only physically, but some people even developed depression, anxiety, and attacks of post-traumatic stress disorder. The community also took a blow because of 5,000 people of the population, 125 were killed, 1,121 were injured, and over 4,000 were left homeless. The houses of people and families was destroyed. 507 houses were destroyed, in addition to forty-four mobile homes and 30 businesses. The disaster left a trail of bad memories that people in the community will never forget. Some of the bodies were washed 40 miles downstream and some of them were never found. A few were impossible to identify. For the survivors, the trauma was multi-dimensional, physical, financial, emotional and even psychological. The disaster received national attention, and resulted in an unwelcome spotlight being shined on West Virginia 's coal industry. Investigations were launched and Pittston Coal lawyered up. To the outrage of the survivors and, indeed, most W. Virginians, the company 's immediate response to the disaster was to claim it was "an Act of God", for which they weren 't responsible. Some people even say that what happened there was not the work of a capricious God. It was the hand of Man that killed those people. Most people could not believe that the disaster happened even after years of having time to accept the fact that it did

The exits were locked and the fire escapes were unable to support rescue support. This left many people jumping out of the windows to their death along with the multiple deaths already caused by the fire inside the building. Unfortunately, 146 lives were lost before any changes could

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, fires broke out, corpses were in streets, looting was taking place around the city, floor waters became toxic with sewage and gas. US Army Corps of Engineers came in to pump New Orleans dry; this was a continuous operation. (video: The Lost City of New Orleans: A Case Study) Organizations such as the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, National Guard and others helped the relief effort with housing,

While sailing on the Havana Harbor in Cuba, an unexpected explosion erupts sinking the 6,000 ton boat killing 260 men.

On April 19,1915, at approximately 10:15 am, a white van loaded with 4,800 pounds of explosives. pulled up in front of the Alfred P. Murrah building All of a sudden the Alfred P. Murrah building exploded killing 187 people.

On April 18, 1906, an earthquake occurred in San Francisco with a magnitude of 7.9. The earthquake was caused by the San Andreas Fault since the San Andreas Fault slip over a segment. The earthquake could be felt from Oregon to southern California. Buildings in San Francisco was destroyed by earthquake and fires. Fires started after the earthquake occurred and firefighters were not able to stop the fire because the water mains were broken and because of this, firestorms started to develop around San Francisco. Then, the San Francisco Mayor E.E. Schmitz called the U.S. Army troops to shoot anyone that is found looting. While the army was doing that, firefighters and U.S. troops tried to fight the fire by dynamiting the city to create firewalls.

Considering there was such devastation from the May 8th eruption there was a few eye witnesses who were able to give their accounts on what happened that day. On the night of May 2, a small eruption of Mount Pelée meant that the town’s attention was fully on it. Witnesses said Pelée’s summit seemed to catch fire, spewing glowing rocks and rendering the midnight sky incandescent. The morning of May 3rd, the residents of St. Pierre found birds that had fallen from the sky, as they were weighed down by ash. Reports of a steamer captain noticing dead fish floating in the sea could have meant that the fish had been killed by a submarine earthquake that sent a shock wave through the sea. Within Ellery S Scott’s account of the 1902 disaster he claimed that the volcano threatened as early as 3rd may when the smoke came from the crater as well as ‘the people of Le Precheur, at the very base of the western slope of Pelée had for some time been smelling sul-phurous gases in the air, the forerunner of the great outburst that was even then ma¬king ready to shoot forth from beneath the rocky crust of the volcano.’ These signs should have given the people of Saint Pierre enough chance to evacuate.

The first thing to occur was the immediate damage of buildings, bridges and other structures. Mr. Tanimoto was the farthest from the blast, at about 2 miles away from the center of the blast. Even then, the buildings around him still collapsed. Every survivor had been injured in some way because of the horrible damage of items from around them.

The 10th of July was the date when two bombs exploded and sunk the Greenpeace flagship the Rainbow Warrior. It was visiting Auckland before leading a protest in Mururoa Atoll against the French nuclear testing in the South Pacific. The Rainbow Warrior was hit trying to “neutralise” the ship ahead of its planned protest, “French agents had worn diving gear and they had placed two packets of plastic-wrapped explosives to it, one by the propeller, one to the outer wall of the engine room.” The two explosions sunk the Rainbow Warrior and shock the harbour.