Pennsylvania Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival

by Karen Ivory

Overview

True accounts of major disasters in Pennsylvania history are retold in this engagingly written collection. From the Johnstown floods of 1889 to the heroic actions on United Flight 193 on 9/11, Pennsylvania has been home to some of the nation's most dramatic moments. Each story reveals not only the circumstances surrounding the disaster and the magnitude of the devastation but also the courage and ingenuity displayed by those who survived and the heroism of those who helped others, often risking their own lives in rescue efforts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493013210
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	07/15/2015
Series:	Disasters Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	138,936
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Karen Ivory, a former broadcast journalist in Philadelphia and New York, is a freelance writer happily based in the City of Brotherly Love.

Table of Contents

Introduction     ix
"The Horrors Were Heart Rending": The Yellow Fever Epidemic (1793)     1
A Quarter of the City Gone: The Great Pittsburgh Fire (1845)     13
"The Trains Have Met!": The Camp Hill and Shohola Collisions (1856, 1864)     21
"A Roar Like Thunder": The Johnstown Flood (1889)     31
Disaster Underground: Coal Mine Calamities (1904, 1907, 1908)     45
"A Perfect Hell": Harrisburg Rail Yard Explosion (1905)     55
"Lighted in a Flash": The Boyertown Opera House Fire (1908)     63
The Sight was Indescribable: Eddystone and Oakdale Explosions (1917, 1918)     73
An Accident Leads to Tragedy: The Chester Bridge Collapse (1921)     81
"Hysteria was Everywhere": The Crash of the Congressional Limited (1943)     87
"Murdered by What was in the Air": The Donora Smog Crisis (1948)     93
A Fun Outing Goes Horribly Wrong: The Wreck of the Phillies Special (1962)     101
The Town that's on Fire: Underground Centralia Fires (Since 1962)     107
"Agnes Rewrote the Book": Hurricane Agnes (1972)     119
A Deadly Mystery: Legionnaire's Disease Outbreak (1976)     125
"This is the Biggie": Three Mile Island (1979)     133
"A Tornado Cocktail": Tornado Outbreak (1985)     149
"We'll Start to TurnIn": The Schoolyard Crash That Killed a Senator (1991)     161
"There was no One to Save": The Crash of USAir Flight 427 (1994)     169
"A Ticking Time Bomb": First the Snow, Then the Floods (1996)     177
"In the Cockpit! If We Don't, We'll Die": The Crash of United Flight 93 (2001)     189
"We're All Nine Here": Quecreek Mine Rescue (2002)     201
Bibliography     215
About the Author     227

Editorial Reviews

The flood then set its sights on Mineral Point, a town a mile below the viaduct. Witnesses described how by this point the water was ripping trees out by the roots and stripping hillsides down to bare rock. In Mineral Point, houses were ripped from their foundations and railroad locomotives were washed along by the growing wave of water and debris. The town was destroyed.” --from Chapter 4

From the Publisher