Disaster!

Back in my days in the south, Bethel Park, PA, my buddy Rachel and I would run around having disasters very often.  "I'm having a disaster!" could be heard nearly every day.  Now of course, we were a bit dramatic.  There is no need for Lauren Tarshis to write an I Survived the 1990s in Bethel Park.  Bethel Park was a wonderful place in which to work, shop, eat, learn, karaoke and have adventures.

The disasters written about in The Unthinkable:  Who Survives When Disaster Strikes- and Why are the serious, horrible disasters.  The man-made and the natural disasters.  I read this one because I really enjoyed Amanda Ripley's The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way. 

This was a very quick read, even though it is hard to hear about horrible tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina and September 11.  It was fascinating to read about Rick Rescorla, a true hero of a man who made it possible for nearly all of Morgan Stanley's 2,687 employees to evacuate the tower by putting into place advanced evacuation plans and by keeping a cool head during the attack.    There have been studies done, physiologcial and psychological, to determine if survivors have something extra or something less which makes them able to survive disasters while others perish.  Interesting stuff here.