The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - And Why

by Amanda Ripley

Book Overview

Discover how human beings react to danger-and what makes the difference between life and death Today, nine out of ten Americans live in places at significant risk of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, terrorism, or other disasters. Tomorrow, some of us will have to make split-second choices to save ourselves and our families. How will we react? What will it feel like? Will we be heroes or victims? In her quest to answer these questions, award-winning...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307352900
• ISBN13: 9780307352903
• Release Date: June 2009
• Publisher: Harmony
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Great Book!

This book was my come back to reading book, first book I finished in 5 years, I loved this book

A book everyone should read!

Great onsite into how our brain work/ thinks in a disaster or stressful situation

Useful and Informative Book

I was at a Bass Pro shop in Denham Springs, Louisiana a few months ago and the fire alarms went off. The shop is huge and only a handful of shoppers went down the stairs and went outside to see what the problem was. Everyone else just kept shopping. Turns out there was a fire in the kitchen of the restaurant attached to the shop. I am a nurse, my husband is a cop, and both of us were surprised at how few reacted to a potential disaster in the making. This book will give you insight into why people behave the way they do in an emergency. I know that I don't want to be a sheep. I want to think and react, using good judgment. This is a very special book and I highly recommend it to everyone.

Exciting Stories, Practical Lessons

"In a disaster, would I panic?" If you are like most Americans, you have never had to go through a terrorist attack, plane crash, flood, or tornado, but also when viewing such video-rich scenes on television news, you can't help wondering what you would do if you were the one in the disaster. The good news is that no, you probably won't panic, because almost no one does. The bad news is that you are far more likely to sit and do nothing. Human response to disasters can be studied, and Amanda Ripley, a senior staffer for _Time_ magazine, has interviewed people who have been in disasters, has talked with academics who study human behavior in such extremities, and has even been through mock disasters herself. She has now written _The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why_ (Crown). There are lessons here about disasters of many kinds and people who failed to respond in a way to save themselves, but this is far from a pessimistic book. If you think of a disaster as being a scene of destruction followed by panic and every-man-for-himself selfishness relieved only when the professional rescuers show up to help, Ripley has some revelatory studies and examples to give you. "Reality is a lot more interesting," she writes, "and hopeful." She has often translated the hopefulness in her studies into practical lessons. This is a book with a purpose, meant to change things. Panic might have been present in a small number of cases at the World Trade Center, but Ripley quotes a researcher who found that workers in the towers did the same thing that others in disasters do: "What is regularly observed is a lethargic response. People are often cool during fires, ignoring or delaying their response." On an average, those who survived the WTC attack waited six minutes before heading downstairs. Delay is part of a denial phase. "We have a tendency to believe that everything is OK because, well, it almost always has been before." The false reliance on normalcy is not completely bad. In a real disaster, Ripley writes, "Civilization holds. People move in groups whenever they can. They are usually far more polite than they are normally. They look out for one another, and they maintain hierarchies." This was all true at the fire that killed 167 of the 3,000 people packed into the Beverly Hills Supper Club in 1977. Researchers looked for selfish behavior, and didn't see it. They saw order. One said, "People used what they had learned in grade-school fire drills. `Stay in line. Don't push. We'll all get out.' People were queuing up! It was just absolutely incredible." It is part the lesson to be drawn from one of the heroes profiled here, Rick Rescorla, who put grumbling millionaire bankers through surprise fire drills at the World Trade Center for his firm Morgan Stanley. When their tower collapsed, 2,687 Morgan Stanley employees were safe, and only thirteen died. That number includes Rescorla himself, who was last seen headin

RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: " THEN- A STRANGER-APPEARED AT HER SIDE & LINKED ARMS WITH HER & SA

This is a very unique, powerful, intellectually stimulating, mesmerizing, and a "MUST-READ" book. This is an historical look at some world famous and not so famous disasters that cover the gamut from ships exploding, restaurants burning, World Trade Center(s), hostage situations, tsunamis, plane crashes and more. The author has combined marvelously detailed and verified research, along with a writing style that is mixed lovingly and compassionately together, with the added touch of a not-so-subtle warning to the reader and the world, that there "ARE" things you can do to better prepare yourself and your loved ones for such catastrophes. Most books and exposes related to disasters usually revolve around the victims. This author decided to take another approach and concentrate on the survivors. The facts provided herein for the reader includes detail culled from over a thousand articles, film, and countless amazing personal interviews, with not only the survivors, but with technicians and medical professionals who have dedicated their lives to making the world a safer place to live. And if we allow ourselves to learn from the lessons meticulously detailed in these pages, then when the inevitable disaster strikes, the total amount of casualties will have a darn good chance of being reduced. Perhaps the disaster that led to the first "systematic analysis of human behavior in a disaster", occurred on December 6, 1917 when a French freighter by the name of the "Mont Blanc" was carrying over TWENTY-FIVE-HUNDRED TONS OF EXPLOSIVES, INCLUDING TNT, was accidently rammed by another boat in Halifax harbor in Nova Scotia. What ensued was the largest bomb explosion in history at the time. "The blast shattered windows sixty miles away. Glass blinded some one- thousand people. Next, a tidal wave caused by the explosion swamped the shore. Then fire began to creep across the city. As the final epic act, a blizzard hit Halifax that evening. ONE-THOUSAND-NINE-HUNDRED-SIXTY-THREE people were killed. A local priest and scholar named Samuel Henry Prince opened his church as a triage station. "After helping rebuild Halifax, Prince moved to New York City to study sociology. For his PhD dissertation at Columbia University, he deconstructed the Halifax explosion. "Catastrophe and Social Change", published in 1920. From there the author examines every aspect of disaster survival and study. The book is broken into three main areas: 1) DENIAL 2) DELIBERATION 3) THE DECISIVE MOMENT. In addition to the emotionally gripping interviews of survivor's what really fascinated me is the study of the human brain. The things the brain does automatically during disaster and distress, and what it can be "trained" to do. One of the more simplistic yet eye-opening studies showed that people who learned how to juggle "actually increased the gray matter in their brains in certain locations. When they stopped juggling, the new gray matter vanished." There was even one portion of the book tha

How would you react in a disaster?

I have often wondered how I would react in a disaster. Would I freeze and be unable to move? Would I get myself to safety, however possible? Would I help others to safety? Although we can not know with certainty until faced with disaster, this book gives clues about how and why we humans react to the "unthinkable": disasters such as plane crashes, fires, tsunamis, and terrorist attacks, as well as smaller-scale crises, such as automobile accidents. Some disasters are not survivable. This book, though, explores why some people survive while others perish in the same circumstances, and describes the behaviors and choices that cause many to die needlessly. "The Unthinkable" describes disasters that cumulatively resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives; however, it is not a morbid tale of death, but an inspiring story of humans responding and adapting to situations and saving their own lives or the lives of those around them. The key lesson to take from this book is the need to be prepared. Those who anticipate possible disaster and know what to do and how to do it are more confident if and when the disaster occurs. We can not prepare for every possible type of danger, but simple things such as learning where the exits are when in an unfamiliar place can mean the difference between surviving or not. After reading "The Unthinkable," my thinking about what it means to be prepared for disaster has changed. For example, I probably pay more attention to things such as airline safety videos than the average passenger, but on future flights I will spend more time really learning my surroundings, such as counting the rows to the nearest exits. And I believe that by understanding our natural responses to danger, I can teach myself to be more mentally prepared to act, and not sit passively waiting for someone else to do something. Just as Gavin deBecker's book, The Gift of Fear, helped me to learn the importance of listening to and trusting my instincts, "The Unthinkable" has shown me how we, as "regular people," can prepare and train ourselves to survive a disaster. I highly recommend both of these books. Reading them could save your life. Cathy Stucker

Stunning Nonfiction Thriller That Will Save Lives

****** I wish that I could give this book six stars; it is not just an outstanding book, but its usefulness in today's times is unparalleled. It is a book about what our brains do during disasters and how we react as unpredictable individuals, which is something that science and technology do not always take into consideration. It is not dry or dull like some books about "emergency preparedness" or "crisis management" that are more like texts or reference books. No, this is a nonfiction thriller told through fascinating stories of actual disasters in which exactly how our brains react is illustrated. It's a book about behavior, especially the behavior of regular, ordinary people, who are actually the most important people when a disaster strikes (and you'll find out why). For example, the book doesn't just detail what to do when a tsunami strikes, or when a hurricane warning is issued, but how you will be thinking differently, how you may be confused, what brain-related problems you might have---like paralysis, temporary blindness, an apparent slowing down of time, tunnel vision, etc. What makes some people resilient and why do they do so much better than others? The author explores this. How do groups react in a crisis? How do we process risk? Have you ever wondered why people don't evacuate when there is a disaster warning? Again, you'll find many of these answers explored here. The author interviewed survivors of many different types of disasters (e.g., bombings, 9/11, crowd crushes, airplane fires, nightclub fires, and so many more) and THIS is what THEY wanted us to know; there were so many commonalities across the different crisis scenarios, but the survivors had no way of sharing these commonalities and principles with the general public. It's what the survivors wished they had known beforehand so that they could have been more prepared. The author has gathered this information and coordinated it with current brain research in this remarkable, unique book. There is information about how to deal with each phase of the "survival arc"---from denial, to deliberation, to the decisive moment. The reason you should buy and read this book, the reason you should buy copies for your friends, is so that you and they will be truly mentally prepared...for the unthinkable. I don't know about you, but I want to be not afraid and filled with doom and gloom, but relaxed, alert, and as ready as I can be. Reading this book does not increase my anxiety about the future as you might think, but decreases it, as I feel more competent---like I've learned valuable, valuable mental skills and principles to get me through what might come. This book will save lives. Get it. I have reviewed hundreds of books, and of all of them, I'd give this one my highest recommended...and six stars. ******