Unthinkable_ Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why - Amanda Ripley [125]
Samuel Prince
See Leonard F. Hatfield, Sammy the Prince.
Mayor Ray Nagin
Nagin’s quotes come from John Pope’s article in the Times-Picayune.
The Exploding Streets of Guadalajara
“Ordinary citizens are amazingly capable of avoiding deadly harm,” concluded epidemiologist Thomas Glass after completing an extensive National Science Foundation study of ten major disasters, including Guadalajara. “What the lay public does, both individually and collectively, will make the greatest difference in the ultimate outcome.”
Survivability of Airplane Accidents
This data comes from the National Transportation Safety Board’s Survivability of Accidents Involving Part 121 U.S. Air Carrier Operations, 1983 Through 2000.
7/7 Attacks in London
This information comes from the 7 July Review Committee, Report of the 7 July Review Committee.
The Conundrum of Modern Civilizations
Here is a good example of what I mean: In May of 2007, a tornado utterly flattened the Kansas town of Greensburg, located smack in the middle of Tornado Alley. Three days later, Major General Tod Bunting, director of emergency management for the state, made the vow that all officials now make after a disaster, mistaking defiance for strength. He promised CNN that the town would be back, that the enemy, whoever that might be, would never win: “You know what? This is America. We build where we want to build. We live where we want to live.”
For a thorough description of America’s complicated relationship with hazards, see Dennis Mileti, Disasters by Design.
The Two Kinds of Evolution
For more on this concept, see Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene.
More Than 80 Percent of Americans Live in Cities
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2005 Revision.
Hawaiian Tsunami
For more on the Hawaii tsunami, see Brian F. Atwater et al., “Surviving a Tsunami—Lessons from Chile, Hawaii, and Japan,” U.S. Geological Survey, and Richard Horton, “Threats to Human Survival,” The Lancet.
Risk of a Disaster
Amanda Ripley, “Why We Don’t Prepare for Disaster,” Time.
Hunter S. Thompson
I am indebted to at least two and maybe three people for this quote. First, my friend David Carr introduced me to it. The quote is part of his e-mail signature, and I shamelessly lifted it. The quote itself, meanwhile, is widely attributed to Thompson in many different places. But it is also, in other places, described as an Indian proverb. I thank them all.
CHAPTER 1: DELAY
Lethargy in Fire
Guylène Proulx, “Cool Under Fire,” Fire Protection Engineering.
Laughter During an Emergency Landing
Matthew Kaminski’s column appeared in the Wall Street Journal on May 19, 2006.
NIST Report on 9/11
The federal government’s in-depth investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center was conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It is a massive and extremely helpful document. Of the forty-two companion reports, one in particular (NIST NCSTAR 1-7: “Occupant Behavior, Egress, and Emergency Communication”) was most relevant to this book. To see the full report, go to http://wtc.nist.gov/pubs/.
Gathering Before Evacuating on 9/11
This survey of 1,444 Trade Center evacuees, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Association of Schools of Public Health, was conducted by Robyn R. M. Gershon and her team at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. The final quantitative results had not yet been published at the time of this book’s printing, but Gershon shared what she’d learned with me in several meetings from 2004 to 2006. You can see many of her findings here: www.mailman.hs.columbia.edu/CPHP/wtc/. Most of the data cited in this book are also included in Gershon’s 2007 IRB-Investigator presentation, available on the site.
Fire Marshals in 1993
The quote on training comes from Rita F. Fahy and Guylène Proulx, “Collective Common Sense: A Study of Human Behavior