Disaster Area Jennifer Matarese

In the first in this five-part series, we look at the town of Uvalde, and the first moments before a normal school day goes from calm to terrifying.
Videos:

Frontline: Inside the Uvalde Response Frontline: After Uvalde: Guns, Grief, and Texas Politics Cell phone video of the parents imploring the police to do something Disturbing new footage shows Salvador Ramos in Uvalde school, cops running | New York Post Ballistic Gel Human Head VS 223 Video: Greg Abbott and Beto O’Rourke clash over Uvalde deaths as governor provides more details on school shooting
Articles and books:

Before the school shooting, Uvalde was known for a 1970 Hispanic student walkout. Its aging participants fear its spirit and memory are fading. Timeline of the events leading up to, including, and following the attack on Robb Elementary Department of Justice: Critical Incident Review Uvalde buries 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza, the first of many funerals to come Texas cops’ claims unravel: Police didn’t "engage" Uvalde shooter — but they cuffed scared parents Gunman bought two rifles, hundreds of rounds in days before massacre Uvalde: 90 minutes of terror, a failed police response and shattered trust Mom who saved her kids from Uvalde school shooting says police are targeting her NRA holds convention in Houston days after Texas school shooting Before massacre, Uvalde gunman frequently threatened teen girls online The Pulitzer Prize: The Washington Post's winning 2023 series on the damage caused by AR-15s Nearly two years after the Uvalde massacre, here’s who has been reprimanded and where investigations stand Uvalde school shooter’s self-proclaimed ex accused of making threats against the community Uvalde victim's uncle elected to school board nearly two years after shooting Uvalde mayor abruptly resigns ahead of a council vote on shooting report 21 lives lost: Uvalde victims were a cross-section of a small, mostly Latino town in South Texas Teenage cousin of Uvalde school shooter arrested and accused of threatening to do 'the same thing' Uvalde schools hire — and then fire — former DPS trooper under investigation for shooting response The Gunman in Uvalde Left Multiple Hints Before His Attack Began

A year ago this week, I covered the Amagasaki train derailment in 2005 in Japan. Why not cover a second one seven years earlier near a small town in Germany?
Videos:

Seconds from Disaster: The Eschede derailment TS2018 Rail Disasters - Derailment at High Speed (1998 Eschede train disaster) What Went Wrong: Countdown to Catastrophe: The Eschede Disaster
Articles and books:

Page about the Eschede train disaster memorial Germany recalls the Eschede train disaster The Cost of Comfort: The 1998 Eschede Train Derailment

It's early in the morning on a Tuesday when you're awakened by the shaking of your bed, of your entire home. You think for a moment it's the end of the world. You and your family make it out of your home, even though so many others do not. For a moment, you think you are safe. Then, you smell smoke.
Videos:
A Trip Down Market Street, San Francisco - April 14th, 1906
Disaster by the Bay: The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906
The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Documentary
Footage of San Francisco's 1906 quake as it occurred
San Francisco after the devastating earthquake in 1906 like you've never seen before in color! [HD]
Articles and books:
The San Francisco Earthquake: A Minute-by-Minute Account of the 1906 Disaster, by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts
The Museum of the City of San Francisco: Timeline of the San Francisco Earthquake, April 18 - 23, 1906, along with a timeline of the graft investigation

It's early in the morning on a Tuesday when you're awakened by the shaking of your bed, of your entire home. You think for a moment it's the end of the world. You and your family make it out of your home, even though so many others do not. For a moment, you think you are safe. Then, you smell smoke.
Videos:
A Trip Down Market Street, San Francisco - April 14th, 1906
Disaster by the Bay: The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906
The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Documentary
Footage of San Francisco's 1906 quake as it occurred
San Francisco after the devastating earthquake in 1906 like you've never seen before in color! [HD]
Articles and books:
The San Francisco Earthquake: A Minute-by-Minute Account of the 1906 Disaster, by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts
The Museum of the City of San Francisco: Timeline of the San Francisco Earthquake, April 18 - 23, 1906, along with a timeline of the graft investigation

It's early in the morning on a Tuesday when you're awakened by the shaking of your bed, of your entire home. You think for a moment it's the end of the world. You and your family make it out of your home, even though so many others do not. For a moment, you think you are safe. Then, you smell smoke.
Videos:

A Trip Down Market Street, San Francisco - April 14th, 1906 Disaster by the Bay: The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Documentary Footage of San Francisco's 1906 quake as it occurred San Francisco after the devastating earthquake in 1906 like you've never seen before in color! [HD]
Articles and books:

The San Francisco Earthquake: A Minute-by-Minute Account of the 1906 Disaster, by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts The Museum of the City of San Francisco: Timeline of the San Francisco Earthquake, April 18 - 23, 1906, along with a timeline of the graft investigation

The deadliest fire in American history happened not in Chicago, but in a small Wisconsin town to the north of Chicago on the exact same day - October 8th, 1871.
Videos:
Watch now: The story of the tabernacle in the Peshtigo Fire
Lake Michigan shipwreck; sank during 1871 Peshtigo Fire
Articles and books:
Firestorm at Peshtigo, by Denise Gess and William Lotz
The Great Midwest Wildfires of 1871
Wisconsin Shipwrecks: The George L. Newman