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Disaster
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  Dagestan  ·  Dagger  ·  Dagon  ·  Dam  ·  Damage  ·  Damn & Damnation  ·  Dance & Dancer  ·  Danger & Dangerous  ·  Daniel (Bible)  ·  Daoism & Taoism  ·  Dare  ·  Dark & Darkness  ·  Dark Ages  ·  Dark Energy  ·  Dark Matter  ·  Darts  ·  Darwin, Charles  ·  Data  ·  Date (Romance)  ·  Date (Time)  ·  Daughter  ·  David (Bible)  ·  Dawn  ·  Day  ·  Dead & Death (I)  ·  Dead & Death (II)  ·  Dead Sea Scrolls  ·  Deal  ·  Death Penalty & Death Sentence  ·  Debate  ·  Deborah (Bible)  ·  Debt  ·  Decadence  ·  Decay  ·  Deceit & Deception  ·  Decency  ·  Decision  ·  Deconstruction  ·  Deed  ·  Defeat  ·  Defect  ·  Defence & Defense  ·  Definition  ·  Deformity  ·  Déjà Vu  ·  Delaware  ·  Delay  ·  Delusion  ·  Dementia  ·  Democracy (I)  ·  Democracy (II)  ·  Democrats & Democrat Party  ·  Demon  ·  Demonstrations  ·  Denmark & Danes  ·  Dentist & Dentistry  ·  Denver & Denver Airport  ·  Deny & Denial  ·  Depart & Leave  ·  Depression  ·  Descendant  ·  Desert  ·  Design  ·  Desire  ·  Despair & Desperation  ·  Despot & Despotism  ·  Destiny  ·  Destroy & Destruction  ·  Detective  ·  Detention  ·  Determination  ·  Detox  ·  Detroit  ·  Development  ·  Devil  ·  Diamond  ·  Diana, Princess  ·  Diary  ·  Dictator & Dictatorship  ·  Dictionary  ·  Diego Garcia  ·  Diet  ·  Difference & Different  ·  Dignity  ·  Diligence & Diligent  ·  Dimension  ·  Dinner  ·  Dinosaur & Dinosaurs  ·  Diplomacy & Diplomat  ·  Dirt  ·  Disability  ·  Disappearances & Vanishings (I)  ·  Disappearances & Vanishings (II)  ·  Disappointment  ·  Disaster  ·  Disbelief  ·  Discipline  ·  Disco  ·  Discovery  ·  Discretion  ·  Discrimination  ·  Disease  ·  Disgrace & Dishonour  ·  Disguise  ·  Disney  ·  Dispute  ·  Dissent  ·  Diversity  ·  Divide & Division  ·  Divine & Divinity  ·  Diving  ·  Divorce  ·  DMT (Dimethyltryptamine)  ·  DNA  ·  Do & Done  ·  Docks & Dockers  ·  Doctor  ·  Doctrine  ·  Documentary  ·  Dog  ·  Dogma  ·  Dogon  ·  Dollar & Dollar Bill  ·  Dolphin  ·  Domestic Violence  ·  Dominican Republic  ·  Donkey  ·  Door  ·  Doping  ·  Doubt  ·  Dowsing  ·  Dracula  ·  Dragon  ·  Dragon's Triangle  ·  Drama  ·  Drawing  ·  Dream  ·  Drink  ·  Drone  ·  Drown & Drowning  ·  Drugs (I)  ·  Drugs (II)  ·  Drugs (III)  ·  Druids  ·  Drunk  ·  Dubai  ·  Dublin  ·  Duck  ·  Duel  ·  Dull  ·  Dust  ·  Duty  ·  Dwarf & Dwarfism  ·  Dzopa & Dropa  

★ Disaster

A disaster doesn’t just happen in one moment.  Or on one day.  They are the result of years of missed warnings.  Missed or ignored.  James Nesbitt: Disasters that Changed Britain I: Paddington Rail Crash, History 2018  

 

The Paddington train crash  one of Britain’s deadliest rail accidents since the war.  ibid.    

 

On the morning of October 5th 1999 just outside London’s Paddington station two trains packed with commuters collided head-on.  The ferocious impact and deadly fire left over 400 injured and 31 dead.  ibid.

 

Southall crash: 130 people were injured and 7 were killed.  ibid.

 

SN109: the signal was difficult to see in normal conditions; and today had the low autumn sun shining directly upon it.  ibid.  

 

SN109 had just had its ninth SPAD.  ibid.  

 

 

A nine-thousand-ton ship with a blind spot over safety … One of the most horrific maritime disasters since The Titanic.  James Nesbitt: Disasters that Changed Britain II: Zeebrugge Ferry Disaster

 

On the night of the 6th March 1987 the Herald of Free Enterprise capsized in the icy waters of the English channel.  193 died from drowning and hypothermia.  And the one thing everybody knows: they forgot to close the doors.  But there is another story: one of near misses, ignored warnings, a story of time and money.  ibid.  

 

Time was money and all the crew knew it.  ibid.

 

19th December 1982: Just outside Harwich harbour the Townsend Rollo ferry the European Gateway smashed into a cargo vessel: water flooded the ship and within ten minutes capsized … six died.  ibid.    

 

By the late 80s the English channel was in a golden age.  ibid.  

 

 

A vast oil platform packed with hazardous equipment.  A rig worker whose warnings were ignored.  And a pump that should never have been switched on.  James Nesbitt: Disasters that Changed Britain III: Piper Alpha

 

The discovery of oil drew some new guests to Scotland.  ibid.

 

They constructed a massive new platform.  Christened Piper Alpha, it weighed around 14,000 tonnes and would be able to pump a quarter of a million barrels of oil every day.  It soon earned the nickname The Monster.  ibid.

 

An oil industry spreading rapidly across the North Sea.  ibid.  

 

There were 241 men on the platform but unknown to them inside one of the high-pressure gas units the equipment was overheating.  At 1 p.m. it exploded; highly flammable gas poured on to the platform and quickly caught fire … The crew of Piper had been lucky.  (Disaster & Accident & Oil)  ibid.

 

Workers who tried to push for union action over safety could find their careers in trouble.  ibid.  

 

It was the handover between day and night shifts Occidental had been warned about before.  ibid. 

 

The order was given to turn on Pump A.  Gas poured out and quickly ignited.  The blast tore threw the gas module and wiped out Piper Alpha’s control room.  ibid. 

 

Piper was a vast inferno visible for miles.  ibid.   

 

 

This is the story of a group of brilliant young footballers and one visionary manager.  A snow-covered runway in West Germany.  Two brave wartime fighter pilots.  And a state of the art aircraft with a flaw.  This is the countdown to an infamous plane crash that shook Britain to its core.  James Nesbitt: Disasters that Changed Britain IV: Munich Air Crash

 

The loss not just of life but what might have been.  ibid.

 

In the years after the war there were hundreds of crashes.  ibid.

 

It skidded off the end of the runway, crashed into the fence and then hit a house.  ibid.  

 

 

A warren of underground tunnels with no escape route.  A fire chief warning again and again of the dangers yet no-one would listen.  A wooden escalator and a match.  This is the countdown to the worst fire in British transport history.  James Nesbitt: Disasters that Changed Britain V: King’s Cross Fire

 

7:45 pm on 15th November 1987: a vast fireball exploded into King’s Cross underground station turning the ticket hall into an inferno.  It’s a story of wooden escalators, piles of rubbish, carelessly dropped matches, but also carelessness and a sense of complacency.  ibid. 

 

Three months earlier a fire had gutted Oxford Circus station.  ibid.

 

 

Families trapped in an unimaginable nightmare from which for many there would be no escape.  James Nesbitt: Disasters that Changed Britain VI: Grenfell Tower

 

The fire at Grenfell Tower: In the early hours of 14th June 2017 a fire ripped through Grenfell Tower in west London.  71 people lost their lives and an entire community was left devastated.  ibid.

 

The problems began decades earlier.  ibid.

 

It would be constructed using the latest building techniques: precast concrete blocks.  ibid.  

 

The Utopian dream of tower-block heaven began to fade.  All over the country poor maintenance, vandalism and social deprivation turned the streets in the sky into slums in the sky.  ibid.

 

 

The Tower’s name is Grenfell.  14th June 2017: As Grenfell Tower burned it was watched by the world.  Relatives across the globe waited for news of loved ones … So many people have vanished without trace.  Reggie Yates: Searching for Grenfell’s Lost Lives, BBC 2018

 

 

Grenfell Tower is 24 storeys high.  Inside are 128 homes.  On 14th June 2017 a fire breaks out in Grenfell Tower.  What happens over the next 24 hours will change how we view social housing for ever.  Grenfell Tower: Minute by Minute, captions, Channel 5 2018

 

‘You can’t imagine how quick it is.’  ibid.  resident

 

There is one staircase in Grenfell Tower: it is quickly filling with black smoke.  ibid.

 

‘You felt the generosity and the warmth of people.’  ibid.  resident

 

‘It was like a goodbye message.’  ibid.  brother, re sister

 

A public inquiry into the causes of the Grenfell Tower fire has begun.  71 people are confirmed to have died in the Grenfell Tower fire.  ibid. 

 

 

His [Churchill’s] record is a litany of catastrophe.  Darkest Hour ***** 2017 starring Gary Oldman & Kristin Scott Thomas & Lily James & Ben Mendelsohn & Stephen Dillane & Ronald Pickup & Nicholas James & Samuel West & David Schofield & Richard Lumsden & Malcolm Storry et al, director Joe Wright, King

 

 

The disaster is happening to our farmlands, it is happening to our oceans, our forests, our wildlife, it is happening to our climate.  How long will it be until humanity understands that everything is interconnected?  How long until multinational corporations understand that they can’t make a profit off a dead planet?  So let the revolution begin.  Night Moves 2013 starring Jesse Eisenberg & Dakota Fanning & Petre Sarsgaard & Alia Shawkat & Logan Miller & Kai Lennox & Katherine Waterston & Barry del Sherman et al, director Kelly Reichardt, environmental film      

 

 

On 6th July 1988 devastating explosions and fire destroyed the Piper Alpha oil platform in the North Sea.  Piper Alpha will always be remembered for the scale of the human tragedy, but more than 20 year on my attention has been drawn to another lesser known aspect of the disaster … pollution from Piper Alpha … the fate of five tons of toxic PCB chemicals that had been on board the platform.  Document: 16/08/2010, BBC Radio 4  

 

 

Stacey: Oh my God!  I mean realistically how long do your think you could stay don’t here?

 

Survivalist: I’ve never realistically looked at it.  Stacey Dooley Investigates: Face to Face with Armageddon, BBC 2018

 

Should we all be making plans for the end of the world?  ibid.  

 

‘If it’s between us and our neighbours, I’ll have to.’  ibid.  survivalist with guns

 

Hidden away in the middle of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains lives a family of preppers who for the past decade have isolated themselves from mainstream society.  They believe it’s the only way to ensure their survival when disaster strikes.  ibid.     

 

 

Japan’s most powerful earthquake ever triggers a monster tsunami.  Fear washes over the nation.  But that’s just the beginning: ten nuclear reactors at two power plants are crippled, threatening the unimaginable.  Nova: Nuclear Meltdown Disaster aka Fukushima Uncensored, Nova 2015

 

This is the road to nowhere.  A once thriving place in one of the most prosperous countries on Earth.  Japan: radioactive Japan.  Time stood still here on March 11th 2011.  Houses that aren’t homes.  Schools that are silent.  Stores shuddered.  Towns without people.  Past the checkpoints, the scans and the meticulous suit-up layer upon layer upon layer of protection is the place we simply know as Fukushima: site of three nuclear reactor meltdowns.  ibid.  

 

The largest [in Japan] ever recorded.  Magnitude 9.  ibid.

 

‘The shaking was like nothing I’d experienced.’  ibid.

 

 

When I was a little girl I remember driving on I-44 with my mom past the desolate remains of what used to be Times beach.  The street sat empty save for the dark windowless husks of decaying abandoned houses.  And she would always tell me the story about how that was where everyone had to be evacuated because of toxic waste contamination.  The Cover Up at Times Beach, Truthstream Media 2017  

 

The by-product of Agent Orange was manufactured … Times beach was disincorporated, evacuated and quarantined save for one elderly couple who refused to leave.  ibid.    

 

The largest civilian dioxin exposure in US history.  ibid.    

 

A suspected dioxin dump site.  ibid.    

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