The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why

by Amanda Ripley

if we can reduce our own fear and adrenaline, even a little bit, we might be able to override paralysis when we need to.

Like many of the survivors in this book, his military training had taught him to always make a plan. It probably saved his life.

people tend to go into cardiac arrest after about twenty minutes in extremely cold water.

If you ask heroes why they did what they did, they invariably say they had no choice. How could they watch a man drown? Or starve? Or burn to death? Heroes are universally uncomfortable with the label. They attribute their actions to the situation, rather than their own profile. “I am just a guy who happened to be somewhere and do something,”

Rescuers tended to have had healthier and closer relationships with their parents. They were also more likely to have had friends of different religions and classes. Their most important quality seemed to be empathy.

Oliner believes the rescuers learned egalitarianism and justice from their parents. When they were disciplined as children, rescuers were more likely to have been reasoned with; nonrescuers were more likely to have been whipped.

It’s impossible to know why, but for some reason, heroes seem to feel a nonnegotiable duty to help others when they can. “It’s something in your heart, your soul, and your emotions that ge...

like almost all people who perform well under extreme stress, heroes believe they shape their own destinies. Psychologists call this an “internal locus of control.”

“Many talked about how they had been taught at some point in their lives that people are supposed to care for one another and felt that being a helper is intimately connected with their own sense of who they are,” Oliner wrote.

“Why are you asking me why I did this? You mean there’s another way to behave?”

Time after time, heroes explain their actions with the statement, “I couldn’t have lived with myself if I hadn’t done it.”

“What were you afraid would happen if you did not do what you did?” “Basically, you’re doing it for yourself,” Olian says, “because you wouldn’t want to not do it and face the consequences internally.” In his case, he was afraid of disappointing himself.

He didn’t jump into the river to be a hero; he did it to avoid being a coward.

Peel open the history of any disaster aftermath and you will find a second, third, and fourth strata of heartbreak.

Disasters often bring out the worst in people, right after they bring out the best.

The best way to get the brain to perform under extreme stress is to repeatedly run it through rehearsals beforehand.

“Knowing where to go was the most important thing. Because your brain—at least mine—just shut down. When that happens, you need to know what to do next,” McMahon says. “One thing you don’t ever want to do is have to think in a disaster.”

When the tower collapsed, only thirteen Morgan Stanley colleagues—including Rescorla and four of his security officers—were inside. The other 2,687 were safe.

people will respond to meet a need in a crisis if they know what to do. You give people the opportunity to be part of something that will make a difference, and they will step up.”

Just like the changes the Port Authority made after the 1993 bombings, the reforms focused on technological fixes and experts, not regular people.

In New Orleans, the lawyers should have known what the liability risks were well before the hurricane even had a name. The evacuation decision never should have been delayed because the lawyers needed to get educated.

Teenagers taught by their parents are more than twice as likely to be involved in serious accidents than those taught by professionals,

Langford is a true believer in the brain, and it gives him enough hope to go on. “The brain is so powerful. Imagine what we can practice! Everything.”

“Skill is my ability to do something automatically, at the subconscious level. I don’t have to think about it. It is programmed. How do I get that? I do that by repetition, by practicing the right thing.

Young people can respond in a nanosecond. The problem is, most of the time they do the wrong thing.”

There was one plane on 9/11 on which regular people were well informed.

terrorism is not the same as the cold war; it is a psychological war more than a physical war,

“Fear requires two things: an awareness of a threat and a sense of being powerless to deal with that threat.”

The more control you feel you have, the less dread you will feel day to day.

In most major disasters, as this book illustrates, the people who will save you will not be wearing badges.

Distrust represents the biggest threat facing most of our societies today.