Disaster Area
253 episodes - English - Latest episode: 28 days ago - ★★★★ - 723 ratingsA podcast about disasters throughout history - what caused them, how people survived, and how we've responded to keep those disasters from happening again.
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Episodes
Episode 195: The San Bernardino massacre
April 13, 2022 16:00 - 1 hour - 178 MBIt was just supposed to be a typical office training session masked as a Christmas party - the speeches, the boring videos, the slideshows that probably could have been an email. But at 11 AM, everything changed when a person dressed all on black entered the conference room and began shooting. Then it got worse - they weren't alone.
Episode 194: The 1989 San Bernardino train wreck
April 06, 2022 16:00 - 1 hour - 137 MBFirst, the train ran off the rails. Then, fire rained from the sky. Hell, it seemed, had come to San Bernardino.
Episode 193: TWA Flight 3
March 02, 2022 17:00 - 2 hours - 206 MBWhen Hollywood legend Carole Lombard boarded TWA Flight 3 on January 16th, 1942, in Las Vegas, she hoped to be home in only a few short hours. She and the twenty-one other people on board only made it thirty-three miles closer to home.
Episode 192: The Erfurt latrine disaster
February 18, 2022 17:00 - 56 minutes - 91.2 MBWhat do you get when you have sixty noblemen in a cess pit? One of the most disgusting disasters of all time.
A quick announcement!
February 15, 2022 05:51 - 5 minutes - 8.86 MBI just wanted to share some news regarding the podcast for those of you who don't follow the social media accounts or Patreon. Nothing terrible, I promise.
Episode 191: The 2020 Calabasas helicopter crash
February 11, 2022 17:00 - 2 hours - 200 MBWhen we all first heard basketball legend Kobe Bryant had died, the world was in disbelief. But the how of it all made everything so much more tragic.
Episode 190: The GMAC massacre
February 04, 2022 17:00 - 53 minutes - 86 MBDragging yourself into work on a Monday can always feel grim. But on June 18th, 1990, the employees at the GMAC office in Jacksonville, Florida, had something far more terrifying than boring meetings to look forward to that day.
Episode 189: Hurricane Agnes
January 28, 2022 17:00 - 1 hour - 189 MBAnd now for Jennifer's hometown disaster - when one small hurricane turned southern New York and Pensylvania into one big muddy lake.
Episode 188: The New London school explosion
January 07, 2022 17:00 - 1 hour - 193 MBOn March 18th, 1937, the students in the junior-senior high school of New London, TX, sat waiting in eager antipation of the end of the school day, looking forward to a three-day weekend. But the school, and many of the students and teachers inside the building, wouldn't make it to 3:30.
Episode 187: The Trolley Square shooting
December 31, 2021 21:00 - 1 hour - 122 MBThe Trolley Squre Mall in Salt Lake City was a popular and historical landmark with a quaint and quirky design. On February 12th, 2007, a young man would arrive at the mall to do something no one, not even his family, saw coming.
Episode 186: The Ramstein air show disaster
December 16, 2021 17:00 - 1 hour - 178 MBThe first maneuver the Frecce Tricolori display team would perform at the Ramstein air show on August 28th, 1988, was called the pierced-heart maneuver. But when three of the planes collided, what followed woud instead pierce through the heart of the crowd, killing dozens.
Episode 185: The 2017 Portland train attack
December 04, 2021 17:00 - 1 hour - 123 MBThe man on the train would not be quiet, and what he was saying was horrifying. Three men would stand up to him. Only one of those men would survive.
Episode 184: The Taconic State Parkway tragedy
November 27, 2021 17:00 - 1 hour - 172 MBWe will never know the entirety of what happened on the Taconic State Parkway on July 26th, 2009, but we know enough - that a drunk and high mom driving a van loaded with five children drove the wrong way and struck another vehicle, leaving eight people dead. It's in the details where the mystery grows.
Episode 183: The Oppau explosion
November 21, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 94.2 MBOn September 21st, 1921, the day dawned just like any other workday at the BASF fertilizer plant in Oppau, Germany. But just a few minutes after 7:30 that morning, an explosion rocked the town and left hundreds dead underneath the remains of Oppau.
Episode 182: The Ghost Ship warehouse fire
October 31, 2021 20:48 - 1 hour - 158 MBOn the night of December 2nd, 2016, an Oakland warehouse burned to the ground. There was just one small problem - it wasn't empty at the time.
Bonus: Disaster Area road trip!
October 09, 2021 04:53 - 2 hours - 203 MBJennifer went on a five-day-long pilgrimage to as many disaster sites as she could manage and now she's going to talk about it for two whole hours.
Episode 181: The Sandy Hook school shooting
October 02, 2021 04:00 - 1 hour - 115 MBOn December 14th, 2012, a young man carrying a Bushmaster rifle walked over the shattered glass from the front doors of Sandy Hook Elementary School and into the building. He was already a murderer. In another five minutes, he would be dead.
Episode 180: American Airlines Flight 587
September 29, 2021 04:00 - 47 minutes - 81.9 MBSeptember 11th was still fresh in everyone's minds when, two months later, an Airbus 300 crashed in a Queens neighborhood after takeoff from JFK International Airport. Was it terrorism, or something else?
Episode 179: The 1993 World Trade Center bombing
September 26, 2021 04:00 - 1 hour - 136 MBIt has been twenty years this month since the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, but they weren't the first time the trade center found itself the target of a deadly terrorist attack.
Episode 178: The 1990 Plainfield tornado
September 09, 2021 10:00 - 1 hour - 107 MBWe are so used to receiving all sorts of warning on our phones - Amber alerts, COVID exposures, weather watches. One weather app on our phone is all it takes to be warned of flood conditions or upcoming storms. But in 1990, people in northeastern Illinois received absolutely no warning that a powerful late-summer tornado was about to tear their lives apart.
Episode 177: American Eagle Flight 4184
September 04, 2021 04:30 - 1 hour - 103 MBWaiting is just a part of flying anywhere, whether it's hanging out waiting to board the plane, twiddling your thumbs while your plane waits for permission to take off, sighing in frustration as the captain announces you'll need to hold over your destination and won't be landing on time. But it could be worse ... far, far worse.
Episode 176: The Italian hall disaster
September 01, 2021 04:30 - 1 hour - 160 MBAfter six months of striking against the copper companies of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the families of the striking miners -especially their children - looked forward to a union Christmas party at the Italian Hall in Calumet. Everyone was having a wonderful time, right up the moment a strange man appeared and yelled, "Fire!"
Episode 175: The Hotel Roosevelt fire
August 11, 2021 16:00 - 1 hour - 149 MBA month after the death of President John F. Kennedy, plenty of Americans could use whatever pick-me-up they could get. The Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, FL, was just such an event. But after a night of celerating came the tragedy that unfolded when exhausted football fans awoke in hotel rooms slowly filling with smoke.
Episode 174: Bhopal
August 04, 2021 04:30 - 1 hour - 136 MBIt's late at night, and you're sleeping soundly until you're awakened by a stench that makes your stomach roll. You hack and cough as your eyes burn. You can barely breathe. So you grab your spouse and your kids, and you run. You run, not just by yourself, but with everyone in your neighborhood, all of you trying to escape a silent killer.
Episode 173: The Oklahoma City bombing
July 28, 2021 04:30 - 2 hours - 236 MBAt 9:02 AM on April 19th, 1995, an explosion rocked the downtown area of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. When people saw the devastated Alfred P. Murrah federal building, many thought at first it was a natural gas explosion. But it turned out to be something much more sinister.
Episode 172: Comair Flight 5191
July 01, 2021 02:55 - 1 hour - 126 MBBeing the only survivor of a plane crash is difficult enough. Being the only survivor when you were the one in the cockpit is another level of tragic.
Episode 171: The battle of Blair Mountain
June 24, 2021 09:33 - 1 hour - 166 MBIn the early 1900s, the coal fields of West Virginia were a tough place to work. With the mine owners keeping a tight grip on their wallets, miners got cheated out of their rightful earnings left, right, and center. From 1912 to 1922, southern West Virginia became a hotbed of miners who refused to take the mine owners' disrespect any longer.
Episode 170: United Airlines Flight 93
June 17, 2021 09:06 - 1 hour - 147 MBImagine you get up at the crack of dawn for a work trip, drag your tired body to the airport, and get onto a plane that sits in a line to take off for another forty minutes. You may think things can't get any worse. You would be wrong.
Episode 169: The Wilmer bus fire
June 02, 2021 04:30 - 1 hour - 127 MBAs Hurricane Rita approached Texas in September of 2005, three million people evacuated the Houston area, among them a busload of thirty-seven residents from the Brighton Gardens of Bellaire assisted living facility. Twenty-three of them would ever make it to their destination alive.
Episode 168: The Prestonsburg bus crash
May 26, 2021 08:13 - 1 hour - 122 MBIt was a clear winter's day, and there was no reason to think the trip to school on bus #27 would be any different than any other day. But as driver John DeRossett steered the bus around the curve after Knottly Hollow, what happened next would devastate the entirety of Floyd County, Kentucky.
Episode 167: The attack on Black Wall Street
May 21, 2021 11:11 - 2 hours - 199 MBOne hundred years ago this month, the Greenwood district of Tulsa - arguably the most prosperous Black community in America - faced one of the darkest, most shameful days in American history.
Episode 166: The Lac-Mégantic train disaster
May 13, 2021 08:32 - 1 hour - 154 MBOn a warm Friday night in July, 2013, over a hundred people were enjoying the comfortable atmosphere and enjoyable music at the Musi-Cafe, a popular local bar in Lac-Megantic, Quebec. Then at quarter after one, the ground began to shake as a runaway train barrel down the local tracks with no one at the controls. What happened next would destroy a town both physically and emotionally.
Episode 165: The Kaprun funicular disaster
May 05, 2021 04:30 - 1 hour - 111 MBIt was the start of the winter ski season on November 11th, 2000, and the skiers and snowboarders heading up to the Kitzsteinhorn glacier on the funicular train were excited for the day to begin. But in only a few minutes, everybody aboard the funicular in Kaprun, Austria, would be fighting to survive inside a tunnel so close to help, yet so very far away.
Episode 164: The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff
April 28, 2021 04:00 - 1 hour - 163 MBThe deadliest shipwreck of all time took place on a cold January night in 1945, when a recommissioned German cruise ship carrying thousands of East Prussian refugees to safety in the west didn't notice the long slim Soviet sub following them in the icy Baltic waters until it was far too late.
Episode 163: The Colectiv nightclub fire
April 25, 2021 03:41 - 1 hour - 121 MBOn the night of October 30, 2015, the Romanian heavy metal band Goodbye to Gravity held a free concert at Club Colectiv in Bucharest. The events of that night would upend Romanian society and government in ways no one could have seen coming.
Episode 162: The Santiago prison fire
April 22, 2021 05:03 - 57 minutes - 94.8 MBChilean prisons were overcrowded, rife with violence, and dilapidated beyond human habitation. It was only a matter of time before the system imploded, and on December 8th, 2010, it finally did - all thanks to a propane gas stove.
Episode 161: The Holodomor
April 14, 2021 04:30 - 1 hour - 83.9 MBBy 1932, Ukrainians would see their lands taken to be turned into collective farms, their cupboards emptied, their valuables stolen, and anyone who complained shipped off to work camps. But from 1932 to 1933, Ukraine would experience the final results of having all of that taken away - a long torturous genocide by starvation.
Episode 160: The Great London beer flood
April 07, 2021 04:30 - 47 minutes - 49.4 MBDrinks are on the house! And in the street, and in the basements, and ... well, they're everywhere. On October 17th, 1814, in St. Giles Rookery, London, that was kind of the problem.
Episode 159: The Swampscott train wreck
March 31, 2021 04:30 - 50 minutes - 50 MBOn a snowy Tuesday in 1956, it's more than likely most of the people on the 8:00 AM train from Danvers, Massachusetts, to Boston would much rather have been home warm and toasty in their bed. Instead, those in the front car would soon find themselves facing a horrifying death.
Episode 158: Germanwings Flight 9525
March 01, 2021 05:31 - 1 hour - 76 MBOn March 24, 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525 went down over the French Alps. But it wasn't mechanical failure or bad weather which brought down the doomed flight. It was an entirely different kind of tragic.
Episode 157: The Joplin tornado
February 28, 2021 18:44 - 1 hour - 77 MBAt 5:34 PM on May 22, 2011, the town of Joplin, Missouri, faced a threat that every town in the Midwest expects to face at some time or another - a tornado. But the monster which grew to life just to the southwest of Joplin became a nightmare which tore apart everything in its path.
Episode 156: The SS Yarmouth Castle
February 26, 2021 20:55 - 1 hour - 80.2 MBMaybe now is not the best time to take a cruise, but back in 1965 a short Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas could be a lovely break for those in Miami looking for a little fun. The SS Yarmouth Castle was just one of several ships people could take on a relaxing weekend trip. But on November 13th, 1965, the fun on the Yarmouth Castle ended with the steady stream of smoke coming from storage room 610.
Episode 155: Saudia Flight 163
January 31, 2021 20:50 - 1 hour - 87 MBWhen you board an aircraft, you would hope your captain, first officer, and flight engineer are experienced, well-trained, and able to work well together in an emergency. The passengers who boarded Saudia Flight 163 in August of 1980 were not so fortunate.
Episode 154: The El Paso Walmart shooting
January 29, 2021 06:46 - 1 hour - 90.8 MBFive miles from the border with Mexico sits a common American sight - a Walmart, situated between a mall and a cluster of car dealerships. In a busy city just across the border from another busy city, the Walmart at Cielo Vista Mall was always packed full of people, something a young man with hate in his heart used to his advantage.
Episode 153: The Schoharie limo crash
January 01, 2021 05:06 - 1 hour - 74.9 MBOn October 6th, 2018, seventeen friends and family of birthday girl Amy Steenburg climbed aboard a stretch SUV limousine for a celebratory trip to a local brewery. Within the hour, everyone on board would be dead.
Episode 152: The Tham Luang cave rescue
December 22, 2020 09:08 - 1 hour - 121 MBTwelve boys and their football coach. One flooded cave. Thousands of volunteers, medical personnel, media members, friends, family, and - perhaps most importantly of all - cave diving experts. Every single one would be needed to make sure the thirteen members of the Wild Boars football club would survive their escape from Tham Luang.
Episode 151: The Luxor hot air balloon disaster
December 01, 2020 04:45 - 56 minutes - 60.7 MBClimb aboard and view the amazing sights to be seen around the ancient city of Luxor in Egypt - the Valley of the Kings, the ruins of Thebes, and dozens of other temples and statues throughout the region! Oh, afraid of hot air balloons? Then perhaps this story is not for you.
Episode 150: US Airways Flight 1549
November 17, 2020 06:03 - 58 minutes - 65.2 MBFor our 150th episode, we look at a disaster in which everyone survived, thanks to a flight crew with the skill and fortitude to pull off a Miracle on the Hudson.
Episode 149: The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
October 31, 2020 20:26 - 1 hour - 75.2 MBYou should be safe in your place of worship. But this week two years ago, a man walked into the Tree of Life-Or L'Simcha Congregation in Pittsburgh and broke that rule.
Episode 148: The fire on the Scandinavian Star
October 30, 2020 07:15 - 59 minutes - 65.8 MBIn the early morning hours of April 7th, 1990, most of the people onboard the MS Scandinavian Star were fast asleep in their cabins, resting as they traveled from Oslo to Frederikshavn. But at least one person on the ship was not only awake, but plotting something which would leave hundreds of people fighting for their lives.