Earthquakes. Hurricanes. Meteorites. Tsunamis. The natural world is full of powerful forces that can kill you in an instant. Hiding in your closet won't save you. Clinging to your roof is a good idea, until your roof is swept out to sea. When faced with a natural disaster, sometimes the only thing to do is close your eyes and hang on. See how these people survived in just that way.

Experts agree everyone will have to confront at least one type of natural or man-made disaster in his or her lifetime. This resource allows the reader to customize and personalize each step to preparedness and develop self-reliance with dozens of supply checklists for building home, car, work, school, and pet emergency kits and organizing important financial, legal, medical, and insurance information.

The author of Men Explain Things to Me explores the moments of altruism and generosity that arise in the aftermath of disaster Why is it that in the aftermath of a disaster? whether manmade or natural?people suddenly become altruistic, resourceful, and brave? What makes the newfound communities and purpose many find in the ruins and crises after disaster so joyous? And what does this joy reveal about ordinarily unmet social desires and possibilities? In A Paradise Built in Hell, award-winning author Rebecca Solnit explores these phenomena, looking at major calamities from the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco through the 1917 explosion that tore up Halifax, Nova Scotia, the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, 9/11, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. She examines how disaster throws people into a temporary utopia of changed states of mind and social possibilities, as well as looking at the cost of the widespread myths and rarer real cases of social deterioration during crisis. This is a timely and important book from an acclaimed author whose work consistently locates unseen patterns and meanings in broad cultural histories.

Are you prepared for a hurricane that turns your home into rubble? An earthquake that leaves you and your family without shelter, food, or water? A flood that makes your home unlivable? Most people don't want to think about those things until it's too late. Ted Wright, who came of age in London during the Blitz of World War II, has extensive experience dealing with natural and man made disasters. He knows most problems occur after the disaster, not during it, and tells how to plan beforehand to enhance the chances of surviving the aftermath. This book covers a variety of possible disasters and considers almost any place one might happen to be when it strikes. In all cases, advance planning combined with relatively inexpensive preparations will greatly enhance your chances of survival, whether you are caught at home (including mobile homes and condos), at work, at school, or on the road. It even has a special distaster plan that elementary, juniour high, or high schools should not be without. With dozens of drawings and ideas, including food torpedoes, quake-resistant shelters, medicine chests, and water-storage trenches, this survival manual will be a life-saver for anyone caught in a major disaster.

Hurricanes, floods, wildfires, tornadoes--weather is becoming extreme, and this book tells you how to plan ahead and prepare, respond to emergencies, and survive the worst-case scenarios. From the risks of building on changing coastlines to the safety kit you should have packed up at home, from the telltale signs of a hurricane on the horizon to how to power up when the grid goes down--this will be the one book to carry with you through all kinds of bad weather. Divided into four sections (Hot, Cold, Wet, Dry) each chapter includes a level-headed discussion of current weather extremes, facts and details on conditions, and theories for why these changes are occurring; dos and don'ts for inside and outside; and gives at-a-glance guidance for how to prepare for, survive, and recover from every extreme. Sidebar features include: gears and gadgets; protecting your pet; and firsthand accounts from survivors and the experts who help them. Spectacular photographs of wicked weather plus useful checklists and how-to illustrations make page after page both useful and entertaining, even when you're contemplating the unthinkable.

Surviving Floods will look at children who experienced floods around the world, through history and up to the present day.