New World Survival
Real events. Documented decisions. Specific cascade failures. Every case study ends with five household actions drawn directly from what the event demonstrated — not from general preparedness advice.
Article stages
Each badge reflects how much official data, review, and time has shaped the analysis. Historical = finalized. Rapid = early information, subject to revision.
Current Events
These articles are being updated as events develop. Stage badges reflect current confidence level — check back as official data is released.
Category 01
Seven hazard types. Each has a cascade lesson that goes beyond 'big storm hits hard.'
1,833 deaths · New Orleans, LA
The levees failed below rated capacity. Engineering — not weather — was the variable no one warned the public about.
85 deaths · Paradise, CA
Paradise burned while people sat in traffic. Leaving before the order is the only reliable WUI survival strategy.
161 deaths · Joplin, MO
24-minute warning. 161 deaths. Warning fatigue killed people — the warning system didn't fail.
246+ deaths · 700,000 displaced
The flood that created federal disaster response. FEMA's lineage starts in the Delta, 1927.
3.5M displaced · Great Plains
The weather was the trigger. The farming was the cause. Decades of land mismanagement made drought catastrophic.
70,000+ deaths · Western Europe
France lost 15,000 people in two weeks. Hospitals understaffed during August vacations. The elderly who died alone were the same population everywhere.
246 deaths · Texas
The Texas grid was 4 minutes 37 seconds from total collapse. Officials were warned after 2011. Nothing changed.
Category 02
Four hazard types covering geological forces — where the built environment's relationship with the landscape determines the outcome.
3,000+ deaths · San Francisco, CA
The earthquake didn't kill most people — the fire did, after the water mains broke.
139 deaths · Alaska & Pacific Coast
The first wave is never the last. People who returned after Wave 1 died in Wave 2.
57 deaths · Washington State
It went sideways, not upward — 230 square miles flattened in 90 seconds. Exclusion zones didn't account for lateral blast.
43 deaths · Oso, Washington
The slope had been flagged as highest risk. The warnings were documented. They never became restrictions.
Category 03
Four hazard types covering failures that happen without storms, earthquakes, or any visible external trigger.
~100 deaths · 55M affected
A software bug and an untrimmed tree. Grid reliability standards were voluntary. They never were again.
0 deaths (no grid) · Global
The most powerful geomagnetic storm in recorded history. The same storm today costs $2 trillion. The grid didn't exist. Now it does.
4,700 evacuated · Ohio
The derailment was one event. The controlled burn was a second, larger one. The official 'all clear' remains contested.
2,209 deaths · Johnstown, PA
A private club's neglected dam. 2,209 people downstream. Nobody was ever prosecuted.
Category 04
Four hazard types where biology and institutional decisions are the variables.
675,000 U.S. deaths · Global
Philadelphia held its parade: 748 deaths per 100,000. St. Louis acted early: 358. Same virus. Different decision.
9 deaths · 714 ill · Nationwide
CEO wrote 'just ship it' after Salmonella tests. 3,913 products recalled. 28-year federal prison sentence.
~100,000 exposed · Flint, MI
A missing $100/day corrosion inhibitor. 18 months of lead. Officials said it was safe.
0 deaths · 140,000 evacuated
Every communication gap in one near-miss. The event that rebuilt the entire nuclear regulatory framework.
Category 05
Two hazard types where human decisions — to harm, to prepare, to organize — are the entire variable.
13 deaths · Jefferson County, CO
Police followed contain-and-negotiate protocol for 44 minutes. That protocol was replaced nationally. Run-Hide-Fight was built from this.
63 deaths · Los Angeles, CA
Emergency services dark for five days. Community social infrastructure — not government response — determined who was safe.
What these 22 events share
Every event in this library had a pre-history: the untrimmed trees at FirstEnergy, the missing corrosion inhibitor in Flint, the warning about the Oso slope that never became a restriction, the FBI tip about the Parkland shooter filed and closed 40 days before the shooting. The disaster arrives at the point of maximum vulnerability — and that vulnerability was built over time.
Almost no event in this library happened without prior documentation of the risk. The difference between the warning and the outcome was always a decision — to act on the documentation, or not to. That decision is often the only thing a household can actually influence.
Every case study here has a window where a prepared household does better. That window is almost always the first three days.
First 72 hours guide22 hazard types are documented here. Your location determines which are most relevant. Find hazard pages for your region.
Your local risksNeighborhoods with strong social networks before an event consistently outperform isolated households of equivalent means. It shows up in every category.
Community resilienceReady to act?
Preparedness is not complicated. It is specific. Find your highest-probability hazard, read that case study, and implement its five action items.
Find your local hazards