Disaster

The long read: In 2011 a tsunami engulfed Japan’s north-east coast. More than 18,000 people were killed. Six years later, in one community, survivors are still tormented by a catastrophic split-second decision

A 3D, illustrated reconstruction of how survivors experienced the Miami-area condo collapse, the bad design, years of damage, and why engineers say it fell.

The story of how nine skiers were killed, and six survived, in the deadliest avalanche in modern California history.

In February 2014 two divers died at a depth of more than 100m in a huge cave system in Norway. Seven weeks later, their three friends went back to get their bodies.

Fresh powder beckoned 16 expert skiers and snowboarders into the backcountry. Then the snow gave way.

One of the worst maritime disasters in European history took place in 1994. It remains very much in the public eye. On a stormy night on the Baltic Sea, more than 850 people lost their lives when a luxurious ferry sank below the waves. From a mass of material, including official and unofficial reports and survivor testimony, our correspondent has distilled an account of the <em>Estonia</em>’s last moments—part of his continuing coverage for the magazine of anarchy on the high seas.

On July 4, the Guadalupe ripped our home from its pillars, pulling my family into its waters and into the night. Then morning came.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans.

Everest deals with trespassers harshly: the dead vanish beneath the snows. While the living struggle to explain what happened. And why. A survivor of the mountain's worst disaster examines the business of Mount Everest and the steep price of ambition.

About an hour before midnight on Mother’s Day in 1986, a group of teenagers assembled at an Episcopal high school in Portland, Oregon, to embark on an expedition. Their goal was to summit Mount Hood, completing an adventure program that was required for all sophomores. What followed was a story of tragedy and loss that is commemorated annually at the institution it changed forever.

Colorado Spring’s Rebecca Vance believed the world was full of dangers for her son, Talon. She would go to the ends of the earth to protect him, even if that meant leaving everything behind.

John Hersey’s 1946 piece exploring how six survivors experienced the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, and its aftermath.

51 Dead in Ohio. The body count: fifty exotic animals, one man. Chris Heath reports on the Zanesville massacre

Kathryn Schulz writes about the Pacific Northwest’s Cascadia fault line, and the region’s inadequate disaster-preparedness plans.

How America’s golden age of aviation safety came to an end

Could the deaths at Camp Mystic have been prevented? Twenty-seven girls died in a Texas flood, dividing a community over whether it was an act of God or the fault of camp leadership.

Investigation finds officials ignored warnings for years before one of the deadliest crashes in decades.

Five years ago, the flight vanished into the Indian Ocean. Officials on land know more about why than they dare to say.

A recording salvaged from three miles deep tells the story of the doomed “El Faro,” a cargo ship engulfed by a hurricane.

Investigating the most lethal in a long history of Mecca disasters—in 2015, when some 2,400 pilgrims were crushed or trampled to death on their way to the holy city—William Langewiesche reveals the cause: not “God’s will,” as the authorities claim, but the arrogance and dishonesty of the Saudi regime.