Customer Reviews

The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why

5 star:		(77)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"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 heading back up to help more people out.

The big lesson: take emergency drills seriously. This is true for plane crashes, too; 56% of passengers in serious plane accidents survive, and you improve your odds if you pay attention to the stewardess as she shows you where the emergency exits are. Remember that bureaucracies now love technical fixes, experts, and gadgetry, but the vast majority of rescues in disasters are done by regular people caught up in them, using no special tools. Know those you live and work with and practice with them. There are lots of other good lessons here besides practice, practice, practice. Expect there to be smoke, so know how to get to a door or exit blindfolded. Use text messenging; it often will work when voice calls won't. Get in shape; speed is needed for most successful evacuations and extra weight slows people down. Ripley has produced a very readable book that dips into psychological and neurochemical explanations for human behavior now and then, but mostly deals in reports about the behavior itself, behavior that is usually explicable and often admirable. More disasters are coming. Read _The Unthinkable_, pay attention, and improve your odds.

******
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.
******

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

After reading the related Time magazine article "How to Survive a Disaster" (May 29/June 9, 2008), I read this book with great anticipation, only to be sorely disappointed. I found too little additional information in the book to warrant recommending reading it instead of, much less in addition to, the article.

I speculate that many of the glowing reviews here are more reactions to the topic of disasters being so interesting rather than this being a good book about that topic.

If you are looking for "actionable" information, there is little more than what you will find in run-of-the-mill disaster preparedness pamphlets.

Neither can I recommend the book for "motivation" or "inspiration": The author's meandering style (repeated digressions, reiterations, irrelevancies,...) drains the narrative force from the events and the interviewees' experiences -- I repeatedly stopped reading in the middle of an account (I normally read several chapters at a time). However, if you read a few pages at a time, this may not register.

Rather than a book on the topic, it is a more of an account of a series of the interviews on this topic, for example, describing the room in which an interview was conducted decades after the event. Interviewing someone who hadn't been interviewed before (the exclusive) seems more important than whether that person has anything to add. Although focusing on a few participants in an event is often used to provide the skeleton on which to build, this book doesn't flesh out the skeleton with the expected related examples, analysis and synthesis. Interesting and relevant topics are mentioned only in passing instead of being explored and tied into the larger narrative. My impression is that the author is much more interested in talking to people about the topic than in the topic itself.

Even major topics seem to be _unnecessarily_ sparse and fragmentary. For example, if you have read/watched reports on the evacuation of the World Trade Center (on 9/11), you may be perplexed by why basic information that supports/enhances the book's points is not even mentioned. I was repeatedly frustrated by how much space the book took to present so little.

A friend who is less goal-directed than me said that, although the content was "slight," the book was "generally entertaining" with sections that were "flat." She too was very disappointed by the many unexplored topics and missed opportunities. (She and I participate in a citizens' group promoting the role of residents in our city's disaster plans and prep)

If you are involved in disaster preparations, the alluded-to topics might help you organize and articulate your experiences and thoughts by triggering memories in a useful way. If you are newly interested, these brief mentions might prime you to better recognize and comprehend these topics in future readings and discussions. Despite this, it is impossible for me to recommend a book for what it skips past.

Comments on chapters:

Risk: I have read many good introductions on how people assess risk. With so many examples and templates available, I was surprised that the chapter here was poorly rendered and missing so much.

Panic: If you--like me--deal with officials who (mistakenly) believe that widespread panic is likely to occur in most disasters, then you may find the chapter on panic useful. Not because it's particularly good, but because panic is so poorly treated in so much of the accessible literature (typically little more than "panic is rare"). I was disappointed that the book presents stampedes/crushes as instances of panic. In many cases, the individuals seem to be acting rationally (irrational action is the core of "panic") based upon their local circumstances, unaware of the global situation and how the cumulative effects of those local actions are harmful. Labeling such disasters as the fault of the people rather than the situation they were placed in precludes assessments on how to prevents future instances.

Errata: pg 219: A referenced website has moved. The domain for "ReallyReady" no longer exists but its content can be accessed at the FAS site in subdirectory "reallyready" (Can't be specific: Amazon prohibits external URLs in reviews for legitimate security reasons).

About: How folks behave in disasters. Organized into the three phases of human behavior in a disaster: denial, deliberation and the decisive moment, Ripley examines disasters such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 tsunami, ship wrecks and plane crashes as well as conducts interviews with survivors and experts in order to determine who does what and why when disaster strikes.


Neat Things I Learned:

* Alzheimer's disease kills more people than fire

* You are more likely to die from food poisoning than fire

* The most common human reaction to a disaster is to do nothing

* You are two times as likely to kill yourself than to be killed by somebody else

* 90% of drivers think they are better drivers than the average person

* If it is sunny in the morning, it is likely that stocks will go up that day

* Even when told not to, about half of air passengers try to take their carry-on bags with them in an evacuation

* Sharks kill about 6 people a year. People kill 26 to 73 million sharks a year

* Teenagers taught to drive by their parents as opposed to a professional have twice as great a chance of getting into a serious accident

* Empathy and a close relationship with parents appear to be predictors in those who exhibit heroic behavior


Pros: Interesting, moves along quickly, well-written. There's some quality advice here such as don't rely on news media to tell you what you should worry about; it's the common stuff that doesn't get reported on that you should be concerned with (like car accidents) and practice, practice, practice are the three best ways to know what you should do in a disaster.

Cons: While there's a notes section and selected bibliography, no in-text citations are provided. Pictures section in the middle seems out of place in a book such as this. "Resilience" Is defined in a note, as opposed to in the text, where I think it would have been a better fit.

The book is valuable in concept, but it is presented in a very choppy and disconnected manner. It is filled with stories which illustrate the various points but they are more like a reporter's scattered notes compiled together than a linear flow of thinking.

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 that may have shed some light on a question that I didn't really know that I've been carrying around somewhere inside of me for over thirty years. When I was in the military, before being selected for a classified mission, I was given a list of random five-digit-numbers to memorize, and then I was run through a number of high risk operations, such as having a machine gun shoot live rounds all around my feet, being put in a bunker without a gas mask and have tear gas released. After those events I was tested to see if I remembered the numbers. That part I understood. But until this book, I forgot that they had taken blood samples from me. They never told me why... and they never told me the results. Well this book goes into some of the ways unique individuals are chosen for today's military Special Forces. One of the factors is a blood test to check on levels of "NEUROPEPTIDE Y" "a compound that helps you stay focused on a task under stress, among other things." Even after heavy stress certain unique individual's levels remain high, where others "NEUROPEPTIDE Y" are low or depleted. AS I've found out over the years there are many things that the government has at their disposal that is not shared for many years. All I know is that I was selected for my mission very quickly.

This author also delves into both sides of the spectrum, heroes and people who panic, and some who actually enter a paralyzed state. As I mentioned earlier, this book covers the disaster in Nova Scotia in 1917 all the way up through Katrina and the Virginia Tech massacre. This is a unique subject matter discussed from a singular perspective, and that's the power and essence of this book. It makes you "THINK AND FEEL" about some pretty important and scary things!

Amanda Ripley in The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes and Why has managed to write an intensely interesting book on disasters and how we react to them and in reacting to critical situations how and why some of us survive and others do not. Why do some individuals make good decisions and act calmly and others "shut down" physically or panic? It is in these reactions to disaster that determine our survival in the next few hours or days.

I have been familiar with Ripley for sometime visiting her blog pages when I have the time. As a reporter who has covered many disasters in the last decade including the attacks of 9/11 and Katrina, she has a unique insight into human behavior under stress.

One point she makes is a profound one. We have spent a tremendous amount of money for equipment and training for first responders as we should. However, during a tornado earthquake, or hurricane, for example, the first responders aren't usually on the scene. Surviving a hurricane very much depends on the individual decisions we make as individuals. If we're a head of household, our decisions may impact on the survival of our family. It is only after the fact that first responders come into play. Great point and one we should all keep in mind.

From the bodies reaction, biologically, to crisis, to real stories of survival, Unthinkable may increase our chances of survival should the "unthinkable" event occur.

I hope that Unthinkable will start a nationwide discussion about preparedness and our responsibilities for our own survival.

Peace to all.

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.

The Unthinkable is a fascinating story about how people behave when their lives are on the line. The best thing about it is that it's not just incredibly informative, but it is also laced with incredible tales about situations you'd never want to encounter and how ordinary people found their way (or didn't, unfortunately). It points out the failure of our government's policies to empower ordinary people with the information and skills they need to survive in disasters, even though it's ordinary people who are almost always on the front lines. And it contains statistics that will change how you view the world - that 50% of plane crashes have survivors, for example. It's made me more careful when I cross the street and less anxious when a plane I'm on lands.

The Unthinkable is a particularly important book for anyone with children because it has clear advice for how to deal with unexpected dangers.

Mostly, The Unthinkable is an uplifting book that will make everyone who reads it feel more prepared and in control should they encounter the catastrophic and unexpected.