On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted with a force equivalent to 1,500 Hiroshima atom bombs, shooting gas and ash 15 miles high and obliterating virtually everything within an eight-mile radius. Trapped in the disaster were six people.
For years, experts warned that the Bay Area was due for a major earthquake, but no one knew exactly when or where it would strike. On October 17, 1989, the answer came with a fury that left San Francisco in ruins and hundreds of residents trapped.
Relive the most violent twister ever recorded, through the eyes of those who were there, including a young mother and child trapped in their mobile home and a family taking shelter in their bathroom while their house was ripped apart.
Witness the tales of the 226 men caught in the 1988 explosion at Piper Alpha, including a new engineer who found a path to safety on the burning oil rig, and a dive supervisor who shielded 11 men from deadly fumes and flames.
The 1945 attack on the USS Indianapolis by a Japanese sub was so sudden and violent that it sank the warship before there was time to launch lifeboats. Tragically, the rescue wait for those who survived took far longer.
In five terrifying minutes, over 1,500 people were killed and a town was reduced to mud and rubble when a massive landslide slammed into a dam reservoir in Longarone, Italy, unleashing a six-billion-gallon wall of water.
David Royle
Producer
John Cavanagh
