by Bill McLain
Mount Pelée started rumbling in early April and spewed out clouds of gray ash until the narrow streets of Saint Pierre were covered with layers of it. Governor Mouttet persuaded the local newspaper to downplay the danger. An election was coming and the governor wanted to make sure that the white and wealthy leaders stayed in power. The wealthy would be the first to leave the island if there was danger, and with them gone, the ruling party could lose the election to the black inhabitants of the island.
A minor eruption blew a crack in the volcano on May 3, and ash and mud destroyed a mountain village. Although the American consul sent a telegram to Washington, D.C., the governor intercepted it and sent a different telegram saying that the danger was over.
The danger was far from over. The weight of the raining ash collapsed roofs all over the city. Hundreds of people who lived close to the volcano were killed and those who survived sought refuge in Saint Pierre. The population of the capital grew to about 30,000 people.
The governor finally realized that the danger from the volcano was real and planned to evacuate the city the following day, but he was too late.
Mount Pelée erupted at 7:59 A.M. the morning of May 8. A searing black cloud of volcanic gas, with temperatures hotter than 1,300°F, raced down the mountain slopes, picking up debris as it went, at speeds exceeding 60 mph.
Three minutes later the Saint Pierre telegraph operator sent his last message. It took only seconds for Saint Pierre to burst into flames. The intense heat melted glass and steel. The hot volcanic ash suffocated the people, and all 30,000 residents, including Governor Mouttet, were killed.
Just one minute later a ship at sea sent the message “Saint Pierre destroyed by Pelée eruption. Send all assistance.”
Rescue parties found only three survivors. One woman had taken shelter in a ditch outside of town and a cobbler had sought refuge in his basement. Both were burned and bleeding, but they survived.
It took search parties three days to find the third survivor, a black man who had been sentenced to death for the murder of a white Frenchman. He was to be hanged the day the volcano erupted. Rescuers found him in an underground jail cell.
It is ironic that the 30,000 people who wanted him hanged all died, while the accused man was the only one in the city to live. He was later given a pardon.
FACTOIDS
The eruption of Mount Pelée was the third deadliest volcanic eruption in the past thousand years.
When the Indonesian volcano Tambora erupted in 1815, 92,000 people died. However, it wasn’t the volcano that killed them. The ash destroyed the land and the people died of starvation.
Approximately seven thousand years ago, a volcano named Mazama erupted in what is now Oregon, and the falling ash covered the entire northwestern United States. The explosion was so violent that the mountain collapsed and left a crater six miles in diameter and half a mile deep. It eventually filled with rain water and is known today as Crater Lake, Oregon.
DID YOU KNOW?
In Mexico there used to be a village called Paricutin. It was near a village called San Juan Parangaricutiro. Neither village exists today. What destroyed them started in a nearby cornfield on February 19, 1943.
On that day, Dionisio Pulido was working in the cornfield, but came back to the village claiming that the field was burning his feet. Fortunately, the village priest realized what was happening and had the people evacuate the area.
By the next morning, the once-flat cornfield was a small hill, 100 feet high. The hill was erupting violently, sending fire and ash into the air. In the first year the hill, now an active volcano, grew to 1,100 feet. Although it continued to grow for another eight years, it only added 245 feet and today is 1,345 feet high.
The slow-moving lava from the volcano eventually covered a 10-square-mile area. The villages of Paricutin and San Juan Parangaricutiro were buried in lava except for the church steeple, which can still be seen today.
Only three people were killed, none by lava or ash. They were all killed by lightning generated by the volcano. It is quite common for lightning to form in the ash column from an erupting volcano. The friction among ash particles causes an electrical charge to form within the eruptive cloud. This electrical charge builds up until it eventually discharges, producing a lightning bolt.
The eruptions stopped in 1952. Scientists from around the world had come to watch the birth of a new volcano, something no one had ever seen before. Although they were ecstatic, it was no consolation to Dionisio Pulido. A towering volcano now stood where his lovely, flat cornfield had once been.
What is the largest earthquake ever recorded in the continental United States? (Don’t get shook up when you read this.)
If you guessed that the largest recorded earthquake in the history of the United States was in California, that’s a very good guess. Unfortunately, it’s wrong. The correct answer is Missouri.
The New Orleans, the first steamboat on the Mississippi River, was on its maiden voyage. On the evening of December 16, 1811, the captain tied his ship up to an island in the river and went ashore for the night with his crew. When they were abruptly awakened a few hours later, the steamboat was gone, and so was the island. They had been submerged by the most powerful earthquake ever to hit the continental United States. It was near the town of New Madrid, Missouri, and became known as the New Madrid earthquake.
Actually, three earthquakes occurred in late 1811 and early 1812. The only part of the country that didn’t feel them was the Pacific Coast. The first quake was so powerful that it rang church bells in Boston, some 1,000 miles away, damaged buildings in Washington, D.C., knocked over chimneys in Maine, and permanently changed the course of the Mississippi River, which flowed backward at one point.
Because of the earthquakes, new lakes were formed and forests were devastated over an area of 150,000 acres. Most houses in New Madrid were destroyed and many of them, including gardens and fields, were simply swallowed up. Survivors said they had seen the ground rolling in waves, huge cracks opening up in the earth, and large areas of land either sinking or rising. There were also reports of tornado-like winds and geysers of mud and rock.
In spite of the severity of the earthquakes, Missouri was only sparsely settled in the early 1800s, and damage and fatalities were minimal.
Not many people know about the New Madrid earthquakes. However, scientists have studied them and know that they occurred in a seismic zone that covers an area of roughly 1,200 square miles. Today millions of people live on top of this earthquake zone, many in large cities such as Saint Louis, Missouri, and Memphis, Tennessee. If there is ever another New Madrid earthquake, damage and death will certainly not be minimal.
If you’re worried about earthquakes, there’s one place you can move that has the least number of earthquakes of any place on earth: Antarctica. If you decide to move there, be sure to dress warmly.
FACTOIDS
Both the Greek philosopher Aristotle and William Shakespeare believed that violent winds were trapped in huge underground caverns. Earthquakes were caused by the struggle of the winds trying to escape from the caverns.
Today the central Mississippi valley has more earthquakes than any part of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains.
The Richter scale used to measure earthquakes is not like a typical measuring device. For example, an earthquake of magnitudes of 9.7 is about 23,000 times stronger than an earthquake of magnitude 6.8. The first New Madrid earthquake had a magnitude of 7.8.
The New Madrid earthquakes are among the great earthquakes in known history. No other earthquake on the North American continent has changed the topography of the land as much as they did.
The largest earthquake in the world, with a magnitude of 9.5, since 1900 occurred in Chile in 1960. It killed 2,000 people, injured 3,000, and left 2 million homeless. It also caused damage in Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, and along the west coast of the United States.
DID YOU KNOW?
A man predicted
the New Madrid earthquakes. Ten years before the earthquakes occurred, he said, “In the midst of the night the earth will begin to tremble, giant trees will fall, rivers will run backward, new lakes will be formed, and old ones will disappear.” On the exact day that he predicted, the New Madrid earthquakes shook the eastern half of the United States.
The man was Tecumseh, a Shawnee warrior and chief. His father, Pucksinwah, saw a meteor when his son was born and named him “Panther Crossing the Sky,” or Tecumseh.
Tecumseh realized that all Native Americans needed to unite as one, and that their differences were petty compared to the problem of the white settlers who threatened the Native American way of life. He united the tribes of the Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes to soundly defeat well-armed armies of the United States.
To Tecumseh, the New Madrid earthquakes were a signal for all tribes to unite against the whites. Unfortunately, Tecumseh left the area to enlist more warriors and put his brother in charge. This was a mistake. The Native Americans were defeated in the battle of Tippecanoe.
Tecumseh’s confederation of tribes collapsed, and he joined the British army during the War of 1812. He was killed in the battle of the Thames. The man who fired the bullet was Colonel Richard Johnson, who later became vice-president of the United States.
If some dark summer night you see a flash of light across the sky, watch it carefully. It just might be the “Panther of the Sky.”
What was the deadliest fire in U.S. history? (It wasn’t Chicago or San Francisco.)
On October 8, 1871, a forest fire swept across the town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, destroying 1.2 million acres of timber and killing an estimated 1,200 people. Although it was the worst fire in the history of the country, it was quickly overshadowed by the great Chicago fire, which took place on the same day and year. Although only 250 people were killed in the Chicago fire, it destroyed over 17,000 buildings and received a great deal of publicity, while the Peshtigo fire did not.
Peshtigo was a boom town that sprung up near a thriving lumber mill. The spring and summer of 1871 was unseasonably dry and hot, and many creeks dried up. By mid-September, sporadic fires broke out near the town and peat fires smoldered for three weeks or so. October 8 was a Sunday, and the residents of Peshtigo were not overly concerned about the dense smoke hovering over them. That evening, a sudden wind whipped up the smoldering peat, and by late evening the wind was as strong as a tornado. Sheets of fire leapt 100 feet into the sky.
In just minutes the fire was rolling over the ground and the air itself seemed to be on fire. The fire consumed all of the oxygen so there was none left to breathe. People tried to flee but couldn’t outrun the racing fire. In just 20 minutes, all that could be seen for miles around was billowing smoke and dancing flames. The heat was so intense that it split huge boulders.
A few people managed to reach the Peshtigo River, but there weren’t many survivors. The entire town was burned to the ground in less than an hour. All that remained were the charred bodies of 800 Peshtigo residents. Combined with the deaths from the fire in other small towns, the total number of fatalities was 1,200.
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Peshtigo was eventually rebuilt. Perhaps in compensation for its terrible tragedy, it was one of the very few cities in the United States that was untouched by the Great Depression.
FACTOIDS
Although many people survived the fire by staying in the river, all the fish in the same river died.
The town’s Catholic church was just a charred ruin, but the tabernacle containing the sacred vessels was untouched and later found on the river bank.
John Mulligan, although burned in the fire, walked six miles to the neighboring town of Marinette and got help for the victims of the fire.
A man who was caught looting corpses was found guilty by a hastily formed jury of survivors and sentenced to be hanged. However, no one could find a rope to hang him with because all the rope had burned up in the fire, so they decided to set him free.
Only one building in Peshtigo survived. It had been built with green lumber which contained enough moisture to keep the building from igniting. The building is still standing in Peshtigo today.
DID YOU KNOW?
There have been many forest fires in the history of the United States. One of the largest and most destructive fires of the twentieth century, in Tillamook, Oregon, started the “six-year jinx.”
The fire started on August 14, 1933. It’s believed that a spark from a steam-powered engine used to haul logs started the blaze. As the fire grew, a column of smoke 40 miles wide mushroomed 40,000 feet into the air and could be seen throughout the Northwest and for hundreds of miles out at sea. At its peak, there was a 15-mile front of flames, and the fire burned 10,000 acres an hour for over 20 hours. The fire was not completely out until 19 days after it had started. It had consumed 239,000 acres, an area about half the size of Rhode Island.
Fires struck the same area three more times. The first time was on August 1, 1939, almost exactly six years from the date of the original fire. It destroyed 189,000 acres, 19 million feet of cut logs, and logging camps and equipment.
The jinx struck again, six years later, in July 1945. It took 3,500 men six days to control the fire, which burned 180,000 acres.
Six years later, on July 20, 1951, the jinx struck again. This time the fire was controlled in five days and only burned 37,000 acres that had been burned in the previous fire.
All four fires consumed over 13 million board feet of timber, enough to build over 1 million five-room houses.
Fortunately, the six-year jinx ended in 1951. If it should return, it won’t be until 2005. Hopefully, by then everyone will be more careful when camping, smoking, or logging in the Tillamook forest.
How many aircraft crashes have occurred in scheduled airline flights in the past fifty years? (Next time try the train.)
Airlines in the United States have an enviable safety record. Fatal accidents per million aircraft miles flown are usually less than one in a thousand. In other words, there is only one fatal accident for every billion miles flown. However, these accidents make the news because they are spectacular and result in so many fatalities at once.
In the past 50 years there have been 258 aircraft accidents, or an average of a little over 5 per year. Some years have been worse than others. There were 10 major accidents in 1959, 12 in 1960, and 13 in 1968. On the other hand, there were none at all in 1980 and only one each in 1984 and 1993.
The worst death toll in aviation history occurred in the Canary Islands in 1977. A Pan Am plane was on the runway in a heavy fog when a KLM plane started its takeoff without permission. The KLM plane collided with the Pan Am plane and both burst into flames. The 560 passengers and 23 crew members on both planes were killed. There were no survivors.
The worst disaster involving only one plane occurred in 1996 when a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 experienced control problems and crashed into a mountain in Japan. There were 520 fatalities.
The third worst disaster, claiming 349 lives, also occurred in 1996, the midair collision of a Saudi Arabian Airways Boeing 747 with a Kazakhstan Airlines Ilyushin I1-76TD. Indications pointed to pilot error in the Kazakhstan Airlines plane.
Each of these disasters represents one of the three major factors in airline crashes: weather, mechanical failure, and pilot error.
Not all aircraft crashes result in death. In 1997 a United Airlines Boeing 747 crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Only one of the 374 people aboard died.
FACTOIDS
In addition to weather and mechanical failure, many airline crashes have been caused by bizarre events. Here are just a few.
A Brazilian aircraft crew was so preoccupied with listening to the World Cup soccer match that they flew in the wrong direction, then ran out of fuel and crashed in the jungle. The survivors walked two days through the jungle to reach safety. It’s alleged that the pilot’s very first words when he emerged from the jungle were “Who won?”
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A Pacific Southwest Airlines plane went into a steep dive and crashed after an employee who had recently been fired shot and killed both pilots.
The captain of a Russian International Airlines plane let his children (11-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son) take turns flying the plane. The boy put the aircraft into a steep bank and the plane stalled, went into a spiral, and crashed. All aboard were killed.
The pilot of a British Overseas Airways flight wanted to give his passengers a good view of Japan’s Mount Fuji. The plane encountered severe clear air turbulence and crashed into the mountain. Everyone aboard was killed.
When a bomb exploded in the forward cargo hold of a JAT Yugoslav Airlines plane, the tail section broke off with a flight attendant still in it and fell 33,000 feet. Although the flight attendant broke her legs and was paralyzed from the waist down, she survived.
DID YOU KNOW?
Talk of aircraft disasters always brings to mind the talented people whose lives have been cut short. Some have died during commercial flights, others during private plane accidents.
Entire sports teams have been killed in commercial airline disasters, including the U.S. Olympic boxing team, the U.S. figure skating team, England’s Manchester United soccer team, and the Evansville, Illinois, basketball teams. The football teams of Marshall University, Wichita State College, and Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo, California, were also victims of commercial airplane disasters.
Perhaps because entertainers and sports personalities travel so much, they often use private planes or chartered aircraft. We’ve lost many wonderful singers in airplane crashes. Some of these include John Denver, Rick Nelson, Otis Reading, Jim Reeves, Ritchie Valens, Patsy Cline, Buddy Holly, and Jim Croce. In Don McLean’s song “American Pie,” he is referring to the plane crash in 1959 that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. Richardson (“The Big Bopper”) when he sings about “the day the music died.”