"
It... picked up cars and equipment as though they were so many snow-draped toys, and swallowing them up, disappeared like a white, broad monster into the ravine below." Nearly 100 years ago, on March 1, 1910, the
deadliest avalanche in United States history struck the small town of Wellington, Washington.
Ninety-six people died as a massive wall of snow struck two Great Northern trains stopped at Wellington to wait for the tracks to be cleared, rolling them nearly 1000 feet into Tye Creek and burying the victims under
huge piles of snow, trees, and debris.
[more inside]
posted by litlnemo
on Jan 1, 2010 -
13 comments
On March 3rd 1943, the
worst civilian disaster of the Second World War killed 173 people, including 62 children. During an air-raid alert, the noise of a new anti-aircraft battery panicked the crowd trying to get into the shelter at
Bethnal Green tube station. In the
dark, wet conditions, someone tripped and fell at the foot of the stairs, blocking the pathway and knocking others over in a domino effect. More and more people continued to pile in at the top leading to a massive and deadly crush.
[more inside]
posted by Electric Dragon
on Mar 3, 2009 -
27 comments
America's worst school violence ever was not a
recent event, but the
Bath School disaster of 1927.
Andrew Kehoe, a school board member upset with his tax bill, used dynamite and some
pyrotol from WWI-era military surplus to blow himself up along with the elementary school of
Bath Township, Michigan, leaving 45 dead and 58 injured. See a
1927 book on the disaster, a
list of victims, the
coroner's inquest, a
historical marker, a
memorial park, an
oral history from a witness, and a 1920s
KKK rant denouncing Kehoe as an agent of the Roman Catholic conspiracy.
posted by jonp72
on Oct 5, 2006 -
14 comments
One hundred years ago today, 1,358 members of the
Kleindeutschland, the German neighborhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, boarded a chartered ferry named the
General Slocum for a picnic excursion to Long Island. A fire broke out in the ship's hold while it cruised up the East River, the captain ran the vessel aground on the rocky shores of North Brother Island amid the swift currents of
Hell Gate, and when it was all over 1,021 people (mainly women and children) had perished by drowning or from the fire, and it remained the worst single-day New York City disaster until 9/11.
posted by Vidiot
on Jun 15, 2004 -
16 comments
