Table of Contents

Preface ix

Chapter 1 Why Do Disasters Happen? 1

Part One Man-Made Accidents 9

Chapter 2 Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse 11

Chapter 3 Nightmare in Bhopal 23

Chapter 4 Meltdown at Chernobyl 36

Chapter 5 Exxon Valdez 48

Chapter 6 Challenger and Columbia: Déjà Vu 64

Part Two Terrorist Acts 83

Chapter 7 Oklahoma City Bombing 85

Chapter 8 Aum Shinrikyo: Terror in Japan 97

Chapter 9 Attack on the USS Cole 113

Chapter 10 September 11: The World Trade Center 126

Chapter 11 London Transit Bombings 148

Part Three Natural Disasters 165

Chapter 12 Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald 167

Chapter 13 Eruption of Mount St. Helens 179

Chapter 14 South Canyon Fire 191

Chapter 15 Sumatra-Andaman Tsunami 203

Chapter 16 Hurricane Katrina 213

Part Four Success Stories 235

Chapter 17 United Airlines Flight 232 237

Chapter 18 Alaska Pipeline and Denali Quake 247

Chapter 19 Lessons Learned 258

Epilogue Where Do We Go From Here? 269

Index 273

About the Author

Mark D. Abkowitz is former chair-man of Visual Risk Technologies, a risk management consulting firm. He is also a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Abkowitz has served as chair of several national and international technical and advisory committees and currently holds a White House appointment as a member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. He is the recipient of the 1996 Distinguished Services Award from the National Academy of Sciences for his leadership role with the Transportation Research Board. He has written numerous articles and spoken at a variety of conferences on the subject of operational risk management, in addition to appearing on NPR, Fox News, and CNBC.