Original subtitles

Narrator: This is the story of america,

Seen in color for the very first time.

In the 20th century, americans live in areas

Exposed to terrifying natural forces.

Newsman: We are in the path where the eye of the hurricane

Is expected to pass over.

Narrator: Attempts to control nature

Also lead to man-made catastrophes.

Man: Oh, the humanity!

Narrator: Horrified and fascinated,

Americans are quick to record the consequences

But slow to respond.

Man: My wife must have went over the rail.

I don't know whether she's alive or not.

Narrator: Experience makes america better

At dealing with disaster

And more savvy about how the planet works.

Man: Public service such as this contributed significantly

To minimizing the loss of life and property

In this catastrophe.

Narrator: This is the story

Of how disasters have shaped america,

As you have never seen it before.

[crash]

♪

John kennedy: I want us to recapture that...

♪

♪

Narrator: Acrobat joseph spah

Is famous for his drunken balancing act.

♪

Over manhattan, he uses clever camera angles

To heighten the illusion that he is flirting with disaster.

♪

In spring 1937, spah is on tour in europe

When he receives a last-minute booking in new york.

♪

Spah's transatlantic trip will be on board

The most glamorous and sophisticated

Transportation of the day--

German airship hindenburg.

In frankfurt, 97 well-heeled passengers and crew

Prepare for the two-and-a-half-day journey.

Even on its 35th atlantic crossing,

Hindenburg draws a crowd.

[cheering]

The crew casts off on the evening of may 3rd.

[cheering]

Inside the airship, spah and fellow passengers

Enjoy comfortable surroundings and five-star treatment.

♪

There is a fully equipped kitchen,

Serving a lavish menu of lobster and other delicacies...

...As well as luxury sleeping berths.

Spah shoots his own home movies.

Here he enjoys views from the observation deck.

Ever the daredevil, he even takes his camera

Up to the top of the hydrogen-filled frame.

Day two, north atlantic icebergs

Are not a problem for hindenburg.

Crossing ice fields, it casts dramatic shadows.

But the weather is fickle.

Strong winds delay the zeppelin.

By the time hindenburg reaches long island sound,

The airship is eight hours late.

Spah continues to film

As hindenburg cruises over manhattan

Toward lakehurst, new jersey,

Where airfield crews are making ready.

News reporters are positioned for filming.

♪

And radio announcer herb morrison is in from chicago

To give an eyewitness account.

Herb morrison: Well, here it comes, ladies and gentlemen,

And what a great sight it is, a thrilling one.

It's a marvelous sight. It's coming down out of the sky.

It's pointed directly towards us and toward the mooring mast.

Narrator: Passengers crowd the hindenburg observation deck.

Spah is hoping to spot his wife evelyn and their children,

Waiting below.

♪

But no one could predict what is about to happen.

Morrison: It's practically standing still.

Now they've dropped ropes out of the nose of the ship,

And, uh, they've been taken ahold of down on the field

By a number of men.

The back motors of the ship

Are just holding it, uh, just enough--

[explosion]

It burst into flames! Get this, charlie!

Get this, charlie! It's fire, and it's crashing!

It's crashing terrible!

Oh, my! Get out of the way, please!

It's burning and bursting into flames,

And the, and it's falling on the mooring mast,

And all the folks between it. This is terrible.

This is one of the worst catastrophes in the world.

Oh...The flames, climbing,

Oh, 400 or 500 feet into the sky, and it,

It's a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen.

There's smoke, and there's flames now,

And the frame is crashing to the ground.

Oh, the humanity!

I don't believe--

I can't even talk to people whose friends are on there.

It's, it's, it's, uh!

I, I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen.

♪

Narrator: 35 passengers and crew

And one member of the ground team die.

Amazingly, two-thirds of those aboard, 62 people, survive.

♪

Joseph spah is one of the lucky ones.

He uses his camera to smash the window of the observation deck

And leap to safety.

The moment is captured by news cameras.

Spah breaks an ankle and burns his hands

But revels in simply being alive.

Joseph spah: It all happened so fast.

There isn't much to figure about.

I do think that I am very lucky that I am sitting home here

In my own home again,

After this experience this afternoon,

And as I said before, I'm just happy.

Narrator: At dawn, explosives experts study the wreckage.

They theorize a spark ignited

The highly flammable hydrogen gas,

But no one ever finds out for sure.

♪

Other airship crashes have been deadlier,

But no one filmed them.

The images horrify moviegoers worldwide.

Public appetite for airship travel disappears.

It's the end of an era for these giants of the skies.

But it's not the first time that graphic images of disaster

Have had such a profound effect on americans.

[film projector starts]

♪

Magician albert smith is an early filmmaking pioneer.

♪

In 1900, he uses the magic of the newly invented movie camera

To great comic effect in his latest show.

Later the same year, his camera will bear witness

To the deadliest disaster in american history.

♪

A week before albert smith filmed here,

Galveston was the busiest seaport in texas.

On Saturday, September 8, 1900,

A violent hurricane struck.

15-foot waves left piles of rubble

In place of elegant avenues.

Here stood the fashionable tremont hotel.

It once looked like this.

No official warning precedes the deluge.

The local weather bureau,

Just over a decade old and with no modern equipment,

Did not know how severe the storm would be.

Here on broadway, the search for survivors is fruitless,

And the stench of bodies carries for miles.

The storm is thought to have killed 8,000,

Nearly a quarter of the city's population.

At st. Mary's orphanage, the bodies of 91 children,

Tethered to 10 nuns, are found buried in the rubble.

Albert smith's footage is the first to show

The destruction of a hurricane.

The harrowing images help to bring change.

Local authorities pour funds

Into an ambitious engineering project.

They raise the city 16 feet

And build a seawall.

In 1915 and 1919,

Hurricanes test galveston's defenses.

Flooding occurs, but many fewer people die,

And most buildings remain standing.

But it's not enough to restore galveston's former glory.

By the 1920s, houston, further inland,

Has taken over as the major port in texas,

Booming off the shipping business

That once fueled galveston.

But soon, a very different force of nature

Will destroy a city on the west coast.

In the spring of 1906, san francisco is bustling.

Enriched by a gold rush nearly 60 years ago,

The city by the bay

Is the commercial heart of the american west.

The miles brothers run a movie studio here.

On Saturday, April 14th,

The brothers mount a camera on a streetcar.

They shoot "a trip down market street,"

Showcasing the cosmopolitan city

All the way to the ferry terminal.

But it is a view that will never be seen again.

[crashing]

Four days later,

Just after 5 a.M. On Wednesday, April 18th,

The biggest earthquake ever to hit san francisco

Destroys the city.

The tremor ends in less than a minute,

But its impact is enormous.

[explosions]

Fires spark in ruptured gas pipes.

♪

Firefighters struggle as water pipes are damaged, too.

Flames roar for three days,

Doing more damage than the quake itself.

This view of city hall

Shows just a fraction of the 28,000 destroyed buildings.

The miles brothers survive

And film a very different trip down market street.

This is the first time

These films have run side by side in color.

The ferry terminal is one of the few buildings to survive.

3,000 are believed dead,

And over 200,000 are now homeless.

This tent city is one of many

Improvised in parks and open spaces.

It's not safe to cook indoors.

Army mule trains haul supplies to otherwise inaccessible areas.

Thousands cram the docks, trying to catch a ferry.

[horn blows]

Many take refuge across the bay in oakland.

♪

At the time, no one knows what causes earthquakes.

But a group of scientists come together

To analyze the aftermath.

They collect data along the 250-mile path of destruction,

Which has been recently named the san andreas fault.

They conclude that quakes occur

When faults in the land rupture abruptly.

The study marks the beginning of modern earthquake science.

Science or no science,

San francisco sets out to rebuild.

By 1912, the city is up and running,

Though few structures are quake-ready.

♪

The city showcases its remarkable recovery

By hosting an extravagant world's fair in 1915.

Grand palaces, ornate fountains, and live performances

Entertain over 19 million visitors,

Including the biggest movie stars of the day,

Fatty arbuckle and mabel normand.

The exhibition is a fantastic example

Of resilience and bravado.

San francisco is back on its feet.

[laughter]

It's 1904.

At brooklyn's coney island amusement park,

Americans delight in artificial disaster.

This damaged footage of one of the most popular attractions

Is a rare survivor.

"fighting the flames" is an elaborately choreographed show.

Firefighters rescue actors from a burning building

As acrobats hurl themselves into nets.

The show makes a heroic spectacle of a growing problem

In america's ever expanding cities.

[fire alarm rings]

New york's fire department has gone professional.

Using steam-driven pumps mounted on wagons,

They respond to over 10,000 fires a year.

Across america, blazes are on the rise in crowded districts

Built with little attention to safety.

♪

In 1911, motorized fire trucks debut.

Crews can reach a fire much more quickly.

Red stands out in traffic.

Soon firefighters are wearing

Rubber coats for better protection

And using portable respirators.

♪

Fire prevention is a trickier problem.

Some regulations go on the books,

But these are ad hoc and often ignored.

At pathé film studios on park avenue,

In December 1929,

A fire kills 10 employees and broadway dancers.

The building's owners had defied the latest regulations

By failing to install sprinkler systems.

A foolhardy attitude to fire risk

Will blight america again,

But it is a tragedy at sea

That is the most infamous disaster of the century.

America's most well-known disaster

Is not captured on film.

This is the only known footage of royal mail ship titanic.

Eight days from now, the world's biggest ship will set out

On her maiden voyage from southampton, England.

Destination--new york city.

Captain edward john smith is in command

When the ship strikes an iceberg and sinks.

♪

As news spreads,

Thousands gather at titanic's offices seeking information.

The missing passengers include

Famous tycoons, aristocrats, and celebrities.

These crewmen are among the 705 saved by the liner carpathia.

But 1,500 die in the icy north atlantic.

[crashing]

In response, in 1914,

16 nations form an international ice patrol,

Coordinated by the u.S. Coast guard.

♪

Patrol vessels clear the busy atlantic shipping lanes

Of icebergs to prevent tragedies.

[gunshot]

[explosion]

Man: This is buge, the ship's mascot of u.S.S. Mojave.

Narrator: Long days on the north atlantic

Offer plenty of time to teach mascot buge new tricks...

Man: Speak. Speak, boy.

[growls]

Speak loud. Speak.

[barks]

Speak loud. Buge, speak!

Narrator: ...And learn a two-step.

♪

Man: We are here today to...

Narrator: But the tragic loss of life on the titanic

Is never forgotten.

In a tradition that continues to this day,

The ice patrol holds a ceremony

And lays a wreath in tribute at the site of the disaster.

[gunshots]

Other great ships will sink,

But the chances of hitting an iceberg decrease sharply.

[gunshot]

[explosion]

But for many americans in the 1920s,

There is a threat much closer to home,

And it is impossible to prevent.

America's vast plains offer ideal conditions

For the most destructive and spectacular of storms--

The tornado.

Tornados strike here more often than anywhere else in the world.

These powerful bursts form extremely quickly.

There are few ways to predict or protect against them.

It's March 1925.

This is what is left of murphysboro, illinois.

The day before, a tornado ripped through town in 90 seconds,

Flattening hundreds of buildings.

Stunned residents pick through debris.

This pilot helps a reporter film the tornado's path.

At 219 miles and stretching across 3 states,

It's the longest tornado track ever recorded.

The storm kills 700 people.

Murphysboro is determined to rebuild.

Americans are 20 years

From getting reliable tornado warnings,

But a breakthrough in earthquake science

Is just around the corner.

By the 1930s, southern californians

Had experienced numerous earthquakes.

Many of them were moderate in size,

But in the hollywood hills,

None were as destructive as the 1906 san francisco quake.

Amateur cameraman and film fanatic cloyd louis

Lives in the hills.

He enjoys filming home movies of his family

And simple pleasures,

But he is soon to make a very different style of film.

♪

At 5:54 p.M. On Friday, March 10, 1933,

An earthquake shakes the los angeles area.

Cloyd louis, seen here,

Is one of the first to film in long beach,

The city nearest to the quake's epicenter.

[crashing]

Aftershocks follow.

Louis keeps the camera going

As residents flee collapsing buildings.

The quake affects 75,000 square miles

And kills 120.

Three quarters of all schools are destroyed.

Jefferson high is among them.

If school had been in session,

The toll would have been far higher.

[people talking]

The quake was a surprise,

But the government responds quickly,

Applying lessons from san francisco,

Such as immediately closing off gas lines to prevent fires.

Within two hours, the navy lands 2,000 sailors and marines,

Followed by soldiers and the national guard

With supplies for rescue and relief work.

♪

At night, film studio lights help rescue workers.

[siren]

The red cross sets up makeshift housing for those in need.

Man: Take all the food you want,

But don't take any more than is actually necessary.

Narrator: Field kitchens feed over 80,000 a day.

[cheering]

The devastation draws rubberneckers from miles around.

Comic actor w.C. Fields releases footage

From a film he's shooting at paramount pictures.

Fields is seen here on the left.

W.C. Fields: ...Save my life. Now, what can I do for you?

[rumbling]

Man: Take us to shanghai.

Fields: Shanghai?

Man: Yeah.

[rumbling]

[crash]

What's, what's the matter?

Man: Earthquake!

[people shouting]

Narrator: News outlets screen the clip widely,

Giving fields' comedy a publicity boost.

[screaming]

[crashing]

40 years later, it's revealed as a hoax.

[rumbling]

Scientists want to know the truth about earthquakes.

For the first time,

A series of new instruments called accelerographs

Have recorded the earth's movement during the quake.

Scientists now know there are multiple fault lines

Posing major earthquake threats,

And much of america's west coast is vulnerable.

Though there is still no scale to measure earthquakes,

The readings also show this event was only moderate.

Buildings in the long beach area

Crumbled because they were constructed poorly,

On top of soft soil and landfill.

♪

This revelation shapes strict new laws

Requiring all school buildings to be earthquake-safe.

♪

Thanks to a better understanding of this destructive force,

America is learning to prepare for earthquakes.

Within the year,

Tragedy at sea will bring another wave of change.

♪

In 1934, cruise ship the s.S. Morro castle

Makes regular trips between new york and havana.

The popular party ship offers americans

A brief escape from the depression.

[ship horn blows]

[cheering]

On September 8th, 549 passengers and crew are aboard

When, in the early hours of the morning, disaster strikes.

[explosion]

Eight miles off the new jersey shore,

The morro has caught fire.

In less than 30 minutes, flames engulf the ship.

Not properly trained for emergencies,

Many crewmen huddle at the bow,

Leaving passengers to fend for themselves.

After three hours, other liners come to help.

Aboard one, an amateur filmmaker records the morro's passengers

Cramming the rescue ship's lifeboats.

From the jersey shore,

Bystanders can see the morro's lifeboats hanging unlaunched.

They sail to the wreck

Or swim to rescue passengers from treacherous currents.

For many, help comes too late.

137 die.

Man: In the confusion and excitement,

My wife must have went over the rail.

I haven't seen her since.

I don't know whether she's alive or not.

Narrator: When the survivors do reach dry land,

They are pressed for details by reporters.

Woman: I was in the water for about an hour, I guess.

I don't know what time the boat...Please...

Narrator: By mid-morning, the morro has come aground.

A pathé cameraman is winched aboard the smoldering wreck.

He documents the fate of polished decks...

...And grand dining halls.

Charred, unused lifeboats

Testify to the crew's incompetence.

Ashore, the newsman discovers the ship was so hot,

He burned the soles of his shoes.

♪

The hulk molders for six months, a macabre tourist attraction.

Souvenir sales help the area's depressed economy.

An investigation grills acting captain william warms.

Man: What do you think was the cause of the fire?

Was it cigarettes?

William warms: Perhaps. Probably not.

Man: Was it lightning?

Warms: No.

Man: Incendiarism?

Warms: Probably.

Narrator: No one solves the mystery,

But there is public outrage over the crew's performance.

Congress passes the merchant marine act,

Creating an academy to train merchant seamen

To handle emergencies.

Thousands soon take the course.

♪

The following year,

America's response to danger from the ocean

Will be tested again.

It's 1935.

Despite the depression, tourists flock to florida,

Where sun and sand offer a welcome escape.

But this subtropical paradise faces a regular threat.

Weather forecasters now recognize June to November

As hurricane season.

For the first time,

Observation posts will keep a 24-hour watch for storms.

On labor day weekend, ships report a weather event

Brewing in the caribbean.

Florida's chief forecaster, grady norton, in the bowtie,

Plots the storm's path so far,

The first systematic tracking of a hurricane.

Norton is able to warn vulnerable areas

12 hours in advance.

[hammering]

[wind blowing]

The storm that hits Monday evening, September 2nd,

Is the most intense hurricane on record.

Today it would be a category 5.

Norton's predictions are correct,

But for many, they are still too late.

[train whistle blows]

A last-minute evacuation train

Derails on islamorada, in the keys.

Aboard are 400 world war I veterans.

257 drown.

Their deaths outrage the nation.

An investigation partly blames the weather bureau.

♪

Deeply affected, norton commits the rest of his career

To improving the hurricane warning system.

As the 1930s end,

Americans are finding ambitious new ways

To conquer their challenging geography.

In 1938, work begins on a revolutionary project

In washington state.

A mile-long suspension bridge

Will cut across the tacoma narrows,

Connecting tacoma and the kitsap peninsula.

600-ton concrete blocks are launched into the water,

To act as anchors.

♪

They form the base of an elegant, innovative design

Meant to be lighter, more flexible,

And cheaper to build.

The bridge is designed to withstand 120-mile winds.

As construction finishes,

The deck develops an up and down movement on windy days.

♪

Officials call in engineering professor

Frederick burt farquharson.

But the opening day remains on schedule

For the engineering triumph.

And in July 1940, governor clarence martin

Dedicates the $6 million span.

♪

The bridge soon earns a nickname--galloping gertie--

But for months, fearless travelers continue to use it.

♪

On the morning of November 7th,

The wind on the narrows is 40 miles per hour.

Farquharson notices the bridge is not only moving up and down,

But also swaying sideways.

Tacoma camera shop owners

Barney elliott and harbine monroe

Film the increasingly violent undulations.

♪

Just after 10 a.M., authorities clear the area.

Tacoma news editor leonard coatsworth

Is forced to abandon his car halfway across the bridge.

He leaves behind tubby, his daughter's dog.

The terrified cocker spaniel won't leave the back seat.

Dog lover farquharson bravely tries to save tubby,

But a bite on the knuckles sends him back to safety.

Moments later, at 11:02 a.M....

♪

♪

♪

Tubby the dog is the bridge's only victim.

Experts decide the bridge's flexible design

Is a fatal flaw

And that engineers need to study

How wind speed affects structures.

For the lead designer, it's a career ender.

[rattling]

The footage of the collapse

Profoundly influences engineering research.

World war ii delays the bridge's rebuilding,

Which takes ten years.

Galloping gertie's descendant is still standing.

America is finally taking lessons from disasters,

A learning curve that carries into a new era

Of science and technology.

In the late 1940s, miami meteorologist grady norton

Collects data on the weather bureau roof

To broadcast on local station wtvj.

Grady norton: It will stay on the cool side through the night.

Tomorrow will be very pleasant.

Narrator: But the 1947 hurricane season

Brings norton's forecasting much closer to the action.

This is a highly skilled u.S. Air force squad

Known as hurricane hunters.

Their missions, begun as a bet between airmen,

Are now vital to warning americans of hurricanes.

They will fly directly into the eye of the storm.

There they measure the wind speed and direction

To help predict the hurricane's path.

Man: Going through the notch. No, they went behind...

Narrator: Radar shows they are close to the eye.

120-mile-per-hour winds buffet the plane,

But the crew get the data needed.

They radio the navy base at miami,

Which relays the information to norton

At the hurricane center.

The storm's path can now be forecast

Around 12 hours earlier than was previously possible.

Norton's team airs a bulletin and hoists warning flags.

Man on radio: The tropical storm of full hurricane force

Is now centered over the isle of pines.

It is moving northward about ten miles per hour.

The storm center will pass a short distance...

Narrator: Hurricane hunters

Sharply cut tropical storm deaths.

By the 1950s, early evacuation

Has slashed typical storm fatalities from 500 to just 5.

Norton's miami headquarters

Becomes the national hurricane center,

And storms start to be given names.

Job stress finally fells norton.

Norton: There yesterday afternoon, and it's moved...

Narrator: In 1954, after a 12-hour shift tracking hazel,

A particularly erratic storm, he has a fatal stroke.

Man: That's about the story on storm hazel.

Narrator: Good Friday, 1964.

It's a quiet afternoon in valdez on the alaskan coast.

The freighter chena is anchored in the harbor.

Crewman fred newmayer films as shipmates throw fruit

To children on the dock.

What happens next will transform the understanding

Of earthquake science across the world.

[crashing]

At 5:36 p.M.,

The largest earthquake in american history strikes alaska.

By rare chance, newmayer documents a quake as it happens.

♪

Across the huge state, vast cracks open,

Shattering towns and cities.

♪

Following hard on the earth's violence come deadly tsunamis.

Six giant waves batter coastal town seward.

At valdez, this is all that remains of chena's moorings.

Waves drove the ship into the heart of the town

And swept away the dock.

The quake kills 131 people.

As alaskans rally,

Scientists from the u.S. Geological survey investigate.

They study gaping fractures,

Massive landslides inland and at the shore,

And they take to the air.

♪

Across 500,000 square miles of damage,

The teams see distinct patterns.

♪

In downtown anchorage,

One whole side of 4th avenue dropped a dozen feet.

Fashionable suburb turnagain by the sea

Collapsed into the bay.

Scientist george plafker links these findings

To an emerging theory-- plate tectonics.

For the first time, earthquakes are understood to occur

When huge pieces of the earth's crust,

Called plates, shift position.

Plate tectonics heralds a new era in planetary geology.

Acting on this knowledge, authorities abandon valdez.

They rebuild the town four miles west on more stable ground.

But there is still uncertainty

As to when the next quake will strike.

[bell tolling]

Galveston, texas.

In the six decades since the great storm of 1900,

America's gulf coast has endured 60 hurricanes.

Galveston's weather bureau now has radar

Able to pinpoint storms 220 miles away.

In September 1961,

Weathermen spot a big storm aimed at the city.

They name it carla.

Enterprising local channel 11 reporter dan rather

Asks to broadcast live from the weather bureau.

Dan rather: ...Your own bedding. You'll probably need it there.

The reason we have brought our live remote cameras

Down here to telecast direct

From the united states weather bureau in galveston...

Narrator: Besides landing a scoop and making tv history,

He and his team will be doing a public service.

Channel 11's marathon coverage of hurricane carla

Starts September 9th.

Rather: As of the moment, hurricane carla is centered

Near latitude 26.0 north and 92.9 west.

Keep in mind that that's where the center...

Narrator: When rather lays a map over the radar,

Viewers can see exactly where the storm is.

It's a lifesaving innovation.

Rather: 255 statute miles southeast of galveston.

That out in the gulf is the real mccoy.

A lot of rain, a lot of wind out there.

Narrator: The coverage spurs action.

Galvestonians evacuate in droves.

Many rural residents take their livelihood and more.

Rather: We do have one bit of advice for you.

If you decide to leave your home

And you don't feel safe where you are,

You want to move into a shelter area, uh,

We are advised, we advise you to bring along your own bedding.

Narrator: 500,000 people along 150 miles of coastline

Move inland seeking safety.

It's the largest peacetime evacuation

The world has ever known.

Rather and team stay put.

Rather: Mr. Rockney, how are things over in the radar room?

Vaughn rockney: Just a minute, and I'll have the fellas

Stand away from the radar screen.

Rather: Don't interrupt anything they're doing there now.

Now there's the shots of the-- our camera's on the radar,

And right there is the hurricane eye.

Narrator: The storm that hits September 11th is a category 5,

One of the most severe storms

Ever to strike mainland america...

...And an exclusive for rather and his station.

Carla destroys nearly 3,000 buildings,

Doing damage estimated at $300 million.

There are 43 fatalities.

Compared to the 8,000 killed here in 1900,

Carla's toll shows how far america has come

In mitigating disaster.

Channel 11 gets public thanks

From weather chief vaughn rockney.

Rockney: We of the weather bureau

Are sure that public service such as this

Contributed significantly to minimizing the loss

Of life and property in this catastrophe.

Narrator: Tussles with nature across this vast continent

Have taught americans to deal with disaster

And fostered understanding of the natural world.

That knowledge stands the nation in good stead

When disaster strikes again.

[creaking]