I Survived True Stories: Five Epic Disasters Read online

  Walter’s eighteen-year-old brother, Will, to join

  Workers dig out

  a train stuck

  in the snow.

  them. Will had always watched over his little

  brother; he refused to stay behind.

  The search party made it to the school, but

  Walter was nowhere to be found. W. C. became

  so distraught that his neighbors had to carry him

  back to the sled. Somehow in the sadness and

  confusion, they left without Will. And now both

  Allen boys were lost in the storm.

  Although Will saw the sleds pull away, he

  remained focused on his search. He got down on

  his hands and knees and crawled along the frozen

  ground, feeling his way across every inch. He

  could not see or hear, and the wind made it diffi-

  cult to breathe. But he kept searching until he

  bumped into a small heap covered with snow.

  It was Walter. He was unconscious, but alive.

  MORE PRECIOUS

  During the hours that Will and Walter were

  fighting for their lives, hundreds of other children

  were caught in the grip of this killer storm.

  Hundreds never made it. Even decades later, Will

  Allen could not explain how he managed to carry

  his unconscious brother through the blowing

  snow, or how he managed to find his way home.

  It was as though the storm’s fury had entered

  Will’s veins, giving him the strength to walk

  against the wind, to rise up when he fell, to hold

  his little brother tight in his arms.

  They arrived home to the jubilation of their

  parents. Over the next few hours, Walter drifted in

  and out of consciousness as his family hovered over

  him. They warmed him slowly. They quieted his

  shivers. At first his body was so numb that he didn’t

  feel the tiny cuts on his leg from the shards of glass

  sticking out of his pocket. It wasn’t until later that

  night that Walter realized his beloved perfume

  bottle had broken during the storm after all.

  Of course by then it didn’t matter. Walter

  understood that something infinitely more precious

  had survived the blizzard, something that could

  never be replaced: Walter himself.

  THE

  BLIZZARD

  FILES

  This article on the Children’s Blizzard

  was one of my favorites to research and

  write. I learned so much about life on the

  prairie — and other amazing facts. Turn

  the page to learn more about the Children’s

  Blizzard, other snow disasters, and facts

  that I just had to share.

  Picture millions

  of these in

  your yard. Ack!

  One of my

  favorite

  books ever!

  Where I discovered

  the story of Walter

  There were two

  terrible blizzards

  in 1888!

  IF YOU LIVED DURING

  THE CHILDREN’S

  BLIZZARD. . .

  Many settlers lived in

  one-room sod houses,

  which were made from

  bricks of hard-packed

  dirt and grass. Cold in

  the winter, hot in the

  summer, and filled with snakes and insects in

  the spring, these houses were anything but cozy.

  The school was often

  just one room where

  kids of all ages were

  taught by a single

  teacher.

  A one-room schoolhouse

  Your home may

  have looked

  like this.

  Your walk to school

  could have taken

  over an hour!

  A family in front of their sod

  house in Nebraska

  Your teacher might

  be very young — as

  young as sixteen or

  seventeen. She (most

  teachers were female)

  would have lived with

  a family in town or

  in a boardinghouse.

  Kids on the plains woke up early

  to milk cows, get water, make a

  fire, feed the animals, or do

  other chores before school even

  started. Girls helped in the

  kitchen. Doing laundry might

  take an entire day.

  Other areas

  MAP

  FACT

  There were 38

  states in 1888.

  were called

  territories.

  Your teacher

  might have

  lived with you.

  Your chores

  would start hours

  before school.

  States and Territories

  of the United States

  of America,

  May 17, 1884, to

  November 2, 1889

  A LAND OF EXTREMES

  There is no place on earth with more

  extreme weather conditions than America’s

  northern plains.

  But if that isn’t bad enough, get ready

  for grasshoppers, also known as locusts.

  Swarms containing

  billions of the insects

  would sweep down

  from the sky and

  devour everything in

  their path. Many

  farms were destroyed

  by locusts, which often

  struck just before a

  harvest. In a matter of

  hours, an entire year’s

  work would

  be gone.

  A grasshopper,

  aka a locust

  Blizzards, Droughts, Tornadoes, Prairie

  Fires, Hailstorms . . . and Grasshoppers!

  PRAIRIE

  is the French

  word for

  “grassland.”

  WORST BLIZZARDS

  IN US HISTORY

  The Great Blizzard of

  1888, March 11-14, 1888

  AFFECTED AREAS: Connecticut, New York, New Jersey,

  and Massachusetts

  DEATHS:

  400

  Believe it or not, an even more deadly blizzard struck the

  United States just two months after the Children’s

  Blizzard. On March 11, 1888, a “white

  hurricane” struck. The worst of the storm

  lasted a day and a half, and buried some

  areas in more than five feet of snow.

  Winds howled. Trees fell. Houses were

  buried. Because this storm hit big cities

  and towns, it affected millions more people

  than the Children’s Blizzard. In fact, historians call it the

  Great Blizzard of 1888. And it is usually ranked as the worst in

  US history.

  1

  Continued

  >

  These storms set records for snow,

  wind, and the number of people killed.

  1888:

  THE YEAR

  OF THE

  BLIZZARDS

  The Brooklyn Bridge after the storm

  A

  Brooklyn

  neighborhood

  AFFECTED AREAS: Great Lakes region

  DEATHS: 250

  4

  The Great Lakes

  Storm of 1913

  AFFECTED AREAS: Mid-Atlantic states

  DEATHS: 13

  5

  Snowmageddon Blizzard,

  February 4-6, 2010

  AFFECTED AREAS: Canada all the way down to Centra
l

  America; twenty-two states and 40 percent of the US

  population were affected.

  DEATHS: 318

  3

  The Storm of the Century,

  March 11-15, 1993

  Blizzard or Snowstorm?

  The difference between a snowstorm and a blizzard

  is wind, not the amount of snow. Blizzards have

  strong winds that blow snow, which makes it hard

  to see. Otherwise it’s just a regular old snowstorm.

  AFFECTED AREAS: Eastern United States

  DEATHS: 353

  2

  The Great Appalachian

  Storm, November 24-30, 1950

  QUESTION:

  Should

  blizzards be

  named, like

  hurricanes

  are?

  Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper

  shows the amount of snow in Printing-

  House Square, New York City, during the

  Great Blizzard of 1888.

  My information came from several

  sources, but here are some highlights!

  THE SPARK

  I first read the

  Little House books

  when I was already

  grown up. The

  Long Winter is my

  favorite. It sparked

  my interest in the

  history of America’s

  northern prairie.

  MY RESEARCH

  JOURNEY

  FINDING

  THE STORY

  This is the most

  important book on the

  blizzard, packed with

  stories and insights that

  come from the author’s

  incredible research. It

  was in Mr. Laskin’s

  book that I discovered

  the story of Walter

  Allen, just one of many

  stories of survival that

  the author uncovered

  from that day.

  TRACKING DOWN THE DETAILS

  I filled in many details from books about prairie life

  and with resources I discovered online, from the

  Google Earth view of the Dakota

  Territory (now North and South

  Dakota) to newspapers published

  in the days after the storm.

  # 2

  THE

  TITANIC

  DISASTER, 1912

  In just a few hours, the Titanic would be at the

  bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Some 1,500

  people — men, women, and children — would

  be dead.

  Yet at 11:00 that night, April 14, 1912, there was

  not the slightest hint of doom in the air. Jack

  Thayer, seventeen, had come outside to admire

  the brilliant sky before going to bed. The stars

  were so sparkly they reminded Jack of diamonds.

  The ocean was perfectly calm. All was quiet

  except for the steady hum of the ship’s engines

  and the whistle of a gentle breeze.

  “It was the kind of night,” Jack would later

  recall, “that made one glad to be alive.”

  Indeed, this smart and curious boy from

  Philadelphia had much to feel glad about. He and

  his parents were returning from a two-month trip

  to Europe. Everywhere Jack looked, he saw signs

  of a fast-changing world — a world made brighter

  by new electric lights, made faster by motorcars

  and powerful steam engines, and made safer by

  breakthroughs in science.

  Workers stand under the

  Titanic

  ’s massive

  propellers.

  The Titanic was a

  symbol of all of these

  changes —the biggest,

  most elegant, most

  technologically advanced

  ship ever built. How

  lucky Jack felt to be on

  its first voyage across the

  Atlantic.

  Even the Thayers,

  who lived in a mansion

  and had traveled the world, were dazzled by the

  grandeur of the ship. It was the most expensive

  ship ever built. Eleven stories high and as long as

  four city blocks, it was the world’s largest

  man-made moving object.

  As three of Titanic ’s 324 first-class passengers,

  the Thayers enjoyed a level of glittering luxury

  never before offered at sea. They had their choice

  of three restaurants, each offering a seemingly

  endless selection of fine dishes. Dinner might

  Jack Thayer

  in 1912, age 17

  be eleven different courses, beginning with a

  velvety soup and ending with a selection of cakes

  and puddings and pastries made by a famous

  French chef.

  After dinner, Jack and his parents could dance

  to the music of an orchestra, or pass the evening

  playing cards in the elegant library. There was a

  swimming pool — the first ever built on a ship —

  filled with warmed ocean water. And, of course,

  there were the fine sleeping cabins and spacious

  rooms furnished with beautiful antiques and

  chandeliers. The Thayers, along with the other

  first-class passengers, had paid more than four

  thousand dollars each for a ticket. It surely was a

  fortune — more than what most people in 1912

  would pay for a house. But Jack’s family could

  easily afford it. And it was well worth the cost for

  this chance to be a part of history.

  Most of the passengers were not rich like the

  Thayers. In fact, the majority were crowded onto

  the lower decks, in third class. Many of these

  A first-class menu from

  the

  Titanic

  Luxury ships like

  the

  Titanic

  included

  first-class amenities.

  The

  Titanic

  gymnasium with

  cycling racing machines

  The first-class dining saloon on the

  Olympic

  ,

  Titanic

  ’s sister ship.

  Titanic

  ’s dining saloon

  was almost identical.

  passengers were poor families, crossing the ocean

  to start new lives in America. Cabins were cramped

  and dark, with bunk beds and simple wooden

  chests. In the third-class dining room, families

  dined on simple foods — porridge for breakfast,

  codfish cakes for dinner — at long wooden tables.

  The air was stuffy, and it was filled with echoes of

  crying babies and chattering in dozens of different

  languages.

  Third-class passengers were not permitted on

  the elegant upper deck, where the Thayers mingled

  with their fellow first-class passengers. Most of

  the men were successful businessmen, like Jack’s

  father, but there were other fascinating people

  on board — doctors, artists and writers, even a

  famous tennis player.

  Jack especially enjoyed his conversations with

  Thomas Andrews, the architect of the Titanic.

  The Irishman could talk for hours about the

  wonders of the ship, and Jack never tired of

  listening. Andrews was modest. But he couldn’t

  deny that the Titanic’s maiden voyage was a

  magnificent success. In three days, the ship was

  due to ar
rive in New York. Crowds of reporters

  and photographers would be waiting, along with

  hundreds of cheering spectators. Already Jack

  could feel the excitement.

  “UNSINKABLE”

  It was almost eleven-thirty when Jack went back

  to his cabin, which was next to his parents’ suite.

  He called good night to his mother and father.

  An advertisement for

  the

  Titanic

  shows the

  first-class deck.

  Just as he was about to get into bed, he swayed

  slightly. He realized the ship had veered to the

  left — “as though she had been gently pushed,”

  he would later say.

  The engines stopped, and for a moment, there

  was a quiet that was “startling and disturbing.”

  Then Jack heard muffled voices and running

  footsteps. He threw on his overcoat and slippers,

  told his parents he was going to see what was

  happening, and rushed outside. Soon a crowd of

  first-class passengers, including his father, joined

  him. Jack wasn’t worried. Actually there was a

  mood of adventure, especially after news spread

  that the ship had struck an iceberg. The men in

  the crowd joked and puffed on cigars as they

  craned their necks and squinted into the dark

  night. They all wanted to see the object that had

  dared interrupt the voyage of the great Titanic.

  Chunks of ice had fallen onto the other decks.

  Passengers played rowdy games of catch with

  balls of ice, tossing them back and forth as they

  laughed with delight.

  “Nobody yet thought of any serious trouble,”

  Jack would recall. “The ship was unsinkable.”

  That’s certainly what most people believed:

  that the Titanic’s state-of-the-art safety features —

  sixteen watertight compartments to contain

  flooding — would keep the ship afloat no matter

  what. So it was with no sense of worry that Jack

  and his father roamed the ship, trying to find out

  when they would again be under way.

  But then Jack and his father saw Mr. Andrews,

  the ship’s designer, standing with several of the

  ship’s officers. Andrews’s grave expression sent a

  stab of fear through Jack’s heart. If anyone under-