How these Redditors survived major Disasters (r/AskReddit - Reddit Scary Stories)

has anyone who lived through a disaster where large numbers of people were killed or injured how did you survive I lived through a category 4 hurricane the I passed over my house which was pretty cool we have buried power lines all the way to my house a strategically important building is nearby so we didn't lose power at all near the height of the storm we are watching CNN and realized that they were just down the street my brother and I walked past their camera with surfboards under our arms as if we were going into the Forty surf not the smartest thing I've ever done I remember seeing that on TV my dad and I were cracking up oh I have one I was in the Aurora shooting we were late as always so we had to sit down in front this was sort of close to the exit it lead into a hallway which lead into the lobby I army crawled through the seats waited for a lull in firing and bolted to the door I was only in there like five minutes basically ran through the lobby until we hit the doors well I would have run to my car but that tear gas or whatever knocked my lungs the eff out I have never had that much trouble catching my breath we left as the police started to show up which is good cause otherwise my car would have been stuck there all weekend and I would have been stuck there all night and into the morning got to meet Anderson Cooper it doesn't bother me any people kept telling me it would bother me but it really doesn't I lived in New Orleans when Katrina happened it was absolutely horrible and terrifying watching the water rise but the aftermath was so much worse my mom and I went to volunteer at a church and I saw so many children my age without clothes medical attention or their families so many people crying and lost and confused no one had any idea if their family had lived it was about two weeks before we found out that everyone in my family lived it was absolutely the scariest thing I've ever experienced in my life I also was in London the day of the 7/7 bombings I'm not from Europe but my mom married a man from there it was my first time out of the country we easily could have been killed but got lost finding our subway route I remember standing outside our hotel for a moment of silence a few days later and the entire city was quiet and eerie my old boss will call him Stan was held hostage in some famous San Francisco hostage-taking scenario the husband of one of his co-workers thought she was cheating him with her boss so he came in and shot the place up killing everyone except Stan and one other person because the gunman only had one bullet left so he took them as hostages and had a standoff for four days or so ended up killing himself with the last bullet somewhat funny part of the story Stan is super gay and during one of the phone calls with police he screamed in the background with a high-pitched feminine voice so for four days the news was saying the gunman had taken two woman hostage apparently it took some figuring out once the whole thing was over but yeah Stan survived by being so gay the gunman knew he wasn't boning his wife on April 16 2007 during my freshman year of college at Virginia Tech one of if not the I don't really want to look this up anymore worst school shootings in history occurred I was in McBride a math building right next to Norris Hall I could jump to the Norris Hall doors from McBride I still had no idea what was happening when my class ended around 10:00 a.m. yet our teacher told us to just go back to our dorms and not go anywhere because a shooting happened earlier in the day on campus at West aj one of the residence halls on our way out of the class we were met by a cop with an m4 or a shotgun yelling at us to stay inside and not come out the sheer terror in his eyes still haunts me for the next six hours I watched as students jumped from windows and were hauled out of the building some moving some not police SUVs were doubling as ambulances for a while and soon just a row of ambulances had pulled up waiting to take the dead / injured away I stayed on campus after this happened I didn't attend classes as we did not have to and used the next month of time as a way to get closer with the people who were on campus and help my friends heal lots of therapy got me through that one it's still hard me to not enter a classroom and immediately look at the windows to see if I can jump out the door to see if it locks or if there are alternative exits that you can use the worst part about this was the political movement that came afterwards reporters stopping me for any kind of statement and then twisting it as much as possible to fit their agenda religious cell it's handing out pamphlets and yelling in megaphone saying we deserved the terror that occurred to us and that it was our fault every year on the anniversary they would come back to campus in the end I now I'm a PhD student I've used this experience to motivate me to achieve the most I can and to help others unlock their potential my grandfather and his aunt survived through the Japanese invasion of China in my grandfather's case they were hiding in the fields when the soldiers came his baby brother was crying and the other villagers almost resorted to suffocating him to death in order to avoid being found his aunt was rounded up with some other folks in a city and were going to get mowed down by them luckily she was in the middle section and dropped down to fake their death when the front row got shot for some reason they had to pull out and a soldier decided to throw a couple of hand grenades on the body pile before he left his aunt and some others ran then but she got hit by the shrapnel on September 11th 2001 I was in my office at the Pentagon when a plane crashed into the building I was in the e-ring just around the corner from where the plane hit it was a pretty orderly evacuation they sent everyone out onto the parade grounds outside the building which was on the opposite side of the impact I survived because of the fact that the location of impact while only about 200 yards from my office happened in the empty wedge of the building that had recently wrapped up renovations that included new blast door / walls all new windows and reinforced framing throughout that section our office was scheduled to move into the new section in the following month by the way it was a plane and he missile big enough to leave a hole the size of the one the plane left would have obliterated a much larger section of that building as a side note if that guy had nose down into the central courtyard we might not be having this con sation not my story but this happened to a friend of mine on the day of the 7/7 attacks in London he had an argument with his girlfriend over something trivial and consequently missed his train he got a tube later than he normally would and therefore he was on the tube behind the one that exploded outside of Russell Square as the underground and the cars filled with dust and smoke people naturally started panicking and he told me he just wanted to get out and see the Sun again they were eventually let out and he walked about in a complete daze as it became clear there were other bombs that had gone off he eventually wandered towards Tavistock as he heard another explosion and rounded the corner to see a double-decker bus with the top blown off he said he honestly thought that the entire city was under attack and that this was just the opening salvo he ran until he came to an HMV record store in the UK and hid in their basement level the entire day paying staff to go out and get him food the staff let him use their phone to call his family / girlfriend but he only left when the very nice staff were closing for the day he laughs it off but in retrospect it was just sheer fluke he now has two daughters and is planning on marrying the GF as I suppose she did save his life through nagging I was on a beach in Thailand with my whole family when that tsunami hit in 2004 although we got through it somewhat okay it wasn't the best of days for any of us I remember pretty much everything apart from a minute or so when I was knocked out from when the ocean started to disappear - when we were up in the mountains behind all the hotels and the main road waiting for news on what the f just happened and if it was safe to go down from the mountain there is one thing that continuously bothers me when I think back on my actions that day when the water started to come back towards the beach and we could see the first big wave starting to break perhaps a kilometre from where to Ocean usually meets the beach I actually said out loud something along the lines this is a tsunami I've seen it on the Discovery Channel but I didn't really connect the dots and figure out that I was probably a good idea to leave the effing beach and warned as many people as I could the wave coming towards us didn't look nearly as big as in the documentary on TV so how bad could it really be you have probably seen the picture and clips on YouTube the actual wave height wasn't that big and it didn't look very threatening until it got closer and then it was pretty much too late to get away and let me tell you when that water hits you you are almost completely powerless to do anything the force of the water is hard to explain to anyone that hasn't experienced something similar as far as I know no one in our hotel got killed in that tsunami so it's not like I failed to prevent a death but I wonder how much pain and suffering I could have prevented if I only would have realized the trouble we were in before it was too late live through the Costa Concordia sinking not a huge number of dead and nothing particularly spectacular regarding survival I guess were the rescue operations really that unorganized and apparently some peeps heard Celine Dion song in the bar was it true or just bullcrap rescue operations were pretty organized Italy's Red Cross responded very quickly and as efficiently as they could evacuation procedures which fell solely on the captain and his staff were absolutely awful it took four hours of the ship listing for them to decide to ignore the guys silence and let us off the boat at that point one side of the boat was at such an angle that the lifeboat slash rafts could not be deployed because they'd roll down the hull of the ship they figured this out because they tried and lost a little girl and others doing so this meant that all of the people intended for those vessels went to the other side of the ship and we ran out of boats and rafts Celine Dion song is probably bullcrap the power went out and switched to reserves at one point and it's hard to hear anything I lived through the whole earthquake in Tokyo in 2011 the initial quake was terrifying then it was quite stressful for about a week I didn't eat nor sleep for five days many expatriates left tremors and after quakes kept me up at night lights were off in the city to save on electricity and the news from Fukushima kept getting worse then all of a sudden people came back and it was almost like it had never happened trusting my gut saved my life I worked in World Trade Center 2 and was in the building when the planes hit this is a piece I wrote shortly afterwards a few years ago I was having a conversation about the scariest moment in my life I couldn't think of one you've all probably heard or read a story about a survivor of the World Trade Center attack but here is mine I worked for Morgan Stanley which was located in South Tower also known as World Trade Center - I got to work early on September 11th and was in the bathroom on the 74th floor when the first plane hit World Trade Center 1 nothing really happened to my building at the time of the first impact except that the ventilation system stopped then started again which wasn't out of the ordinary the fire alarm began to sound that I heard people yelling in the hallway as I walked down the hallway towards my desk I looked outside the windows I saw papers flying everywhere thousands of papers until that time I never saw anything up that high by then I figured that something was wrong I grabbed my bag along with two CDs I had in my desk down set and Minor Threat I met up with some people in the hallway and headed for the last express elevator on my floor some people on the elevator with me said that they had seen the plane hit the other building I was in total disbelief and immediately discounted their story after we got off the elevator the elevator shut down so we were 44 floors from the street and I still wasn't sure what the hell happened we headed for the stairwell and everyone remained pretty calm because no one could possibly imagine that the towers could possibly fall a few minutes later a voice came over the intercom they told us that an airplane had hit the North Tower they continued by saying that our building was secure and that everyone should stay put or go back to our offices by then I was in the stairwell on the 33rd floor and they wanted me to go back to my desk I remember seeing people going back into the hallways and heading back to their desks the hell with that is what I thought and continued down the stairs to me it just didn't make any sense to stay in the building while in the stairwell I called bill a friend of mine who was a few blocks away in another downtown skyscraper we talked about meeting up for a cup of coffee we laughed and joked a little I didn't know that it was going to get very serious very soon a few minutes and 12 floors later we heard an enormous boom suddenly we felt our building shaking and swaying violently most of you probably saw first hand the plane hit the building or at least footage of the incident bill watched the plane fly right into my building he later told me that he thought I was gone I was on the 20th floor and soon as we felt the hit it felt like we were going over kind of like the feeling at the top of a roller coaster just before you take the drop my first thought was that I was going to die with hundreds of people I didn't know I just hoped that it would be fast I kept on walking but I remember seeing many people freezing in their steps and huddling in the corner of the stairwell by now firefighters were rushing up the stairs to help people that were stranded above us I got my first glimpse of the damage when I got to the mezzanine level where I could see the courtyard between the two buildings this was a gigantic open area at least the size of a football field they used to have concerts there I could see paper and metal debris piled several feet high and I can remember hearing someone yelling don't look outside there are bodies once I got to the mall in the basement I began to feel a little safer there was a mall under the World Trade Center that connected all the buildings I think it had close to 70 stores once in the mall some people began running there were emergency workers all around us directing people and urging everyone not to run the hallways were filled with smoke and dust and there were cracks in the marble all over the place we were directed out of and away from the building I was across the street when I saw the flames coming out of the buildings as well as much more falling debris from up above there were people everywhere talking crying running dozens of people being helped by EMTs discarded shoes bags and ties lie all around as well as office supplies parts of keyboards floppies CDs everything you can think of lying on the ground among puddles of blood ash charred paper and broken glass once I was a few blocks away I tried to call my family to let them know that I was okay but very few cell phones were work and lines for payphones were 20 to 30 people deep I eventually got through to my parents and told them to pass along the message I stopped at doing read and bought a bottle of water some gum and a disposable camera I was heading back to the buildings to get a closer look and to get some shots of the scene I walked around and took some pictures of the buildings some shots of the streets and some shots of the people it didn't even occur to me that this might be the last time I would see the twins while I was walking I looked up and saw a Guiness sign hanging over a bar and decided to stop in for a pint the time was about 9:45 a.m. I jokingly say now that Guinness saved my life I wandered into swans Bar and Grill which was about five or six blocks from the World Trade Center site I ordered a double jack on the rocks and a pint of Guinness they had the TV's on allowed us to use the phones and were dishing out food on the house there were about 35 people in the bar so it was pretty comfortable in there considering the drinks food and camaraderie I saw no reason to hurry out about an hour or so later I saw my building fall to the ground we braced ourselves for the shock as we locked the doors turned the vents on and placed damp towels under the door jambs shortly after we saw it fall on the televisions we saw the smoke cloud rush past the bars closed windows all of a sudden it was dark outside smoke began filtering into the bar but the towels and the vents kept it from getting too bad that was the second time that morning I thought it was over I stayed there until about 3:00 p.m. when I left the bar the streets looked as if there had been a fresh snowfall the heavy suit covered everything and seemed to blanket the sound as well just like a fresh snowfall on a winter night wood I took out a pillbox that I had in my pocket filled it with some ash wrapped it in a napkin and put it away everybody was walking around in a daze headed for various ways off of Manhattan Island I had been in contact with some friends and we planned to meet in Chinatown then walk over the Manhattan Bridge to their house many people were out to help as everyone shuffled home a few that stand out in my memory are what looked to be a girls high school soccer team handing out bottles of water to people as they walked by as well as a group of Hasidic Jews who were handing out glasses of water this was the beginning of the unity that everyone talked about immediately following the tragedy I stopped halfway across the bridge to take a look at the downtown skyline that would now be forever changed I stood there and stared at a cloud of smoke that would represent the possible end of my young life and hopefully the beginning of another just a few hours ago our buildings were there talk to anyone who worked in the Trade Center and they'll tell you about a sense of pride in working there pride in being a part of something that big a sense of ownership anyone who ever drove in the metro area and I will tell you that they would always try to catch a glimpse of them on the skyline these inanimate things had a spirit and now they are gone replaced by something else personally I don't know what that something else is yet I'm sure others found it right away but good or bad I haven't found my it yet many things happen that morning both before and after I got to work many things that could have ended up either heads or tails and changed what happened to me what if they hit my building first what if I had gone back to my desk what if you can make yourself sick by thinking about all the possibilities thankfully everything worked out in my favor there were approximately 3,500 employees of Morgan Stanley at the World Trade Center I believe that we only lost six people by the time I was able to check my messages I had about 20 voicemails and 30 missed calls over the next few days practically everyone I ever exchanged phone numbers with over the last two years called to see if I was okay it's strange to think that many of my friends thought I was gone if there is anything close to experiencing death I'm sure that was it the next few weeks were a strange time life had to go on I was moving into a new apartment in two days and I had to get the new place set up I'm very strange when it comes to dealing with events like this I'm not a very expressive or emotional person so when someone asks me what it was like all they get out of me is a shrug of the shoulders and a nod when I talked to my girlfriend on the afternoon of the 11th she was hysterical I just started laughing at her some may say I'm cold or heartless but that's what I needed to do to deal with it I spent some time back home in Atlantic City my parents house work slowly picked back up and plans for our relocation began life goes on death doesn't hurt for those that died it hurts for those that don't sometimes I think about the buildings and it makes me feel good to have experienced them so intimately I remember lying on the warm granite benches in the courtyard on a summer day and closing my eyes only to be told by a security guard standing over me that I wasn't allowed to lie down I remember leaning against the windows with my forehead on the 74th floor and feeling like I was looking over the edge of the world while I was training I would spend a few minutes each day staring out the windows at one of three things the Statue of Liberty the Brooklyn Bridge or the dozens of ferries that would criss cross the harbor and reminded me of ants our department faced the southeast so it was a nice change of scenery when we had meetings in the Northeast conference room the view from there was a breathtaking one of the uptown skyline including the Empire State Building now more stoic than ever not my story this is the story of my eighth-grade SS teacher's university professor we'll call him bill now bill was a member of the ijn during the second world war he was a pilot and if memory serves he flew a zero toward the end of the war Bill's commander assembled him and a few dozen other pilots and asked people to step forward bill was one of the people who stepped forward keep in mind the commander just said step forward nothing else bill was then taken out to the airstrip one day bill your plane has no ammunition it has little gasoline it is loaded with high explosives you will fly this plane into an American ship bill got into the cockpit and took off after a while he ran into an American plane a grumman f6f hellcat he decided knowing that this would be his final mission he would attempt to ram the Hellcat the grumman f6f 3 Hellcat is armed with six browning m2 point five zero caliber machine guns during the head-on the Hellcat managed to blow a leak in bill's gas tank and peel off bill had a decision to make ditch the plane in the ocean and die without honor or fly back and beg for a another chance bill chose the latter the commander's face was one of shock and anger when bill landed bill popped the cockpit to get out but instead was dragged out and thrown several feet to the ground he explained his situation to the commander and was tortured for several days as punishment but the punishment did not end there the torture was not even the worst punishment bill received he was sent to be a servant to someone my SS teacher never mentioned the person's position bill served him for several months until he was told to ride his bike into town to get food that town was Nagasaki Japan bill described it as a bright light emanated from the town so bright it was blinding I covered my eyes and was thrown to the ground bill rode back to his master's house and was taken to the hospital his skin peeled and sheets he eventually came to America after the war and became a university professor at SU NY Brockport I think in New York here's where it gets pretty weird my social studies teacher told this story one night at a family gathering as it turns out a story much like the first part of this story Hellcat in a head-on engagement with a Japanese fighter who did not fire had been recounted by his wife's father after doing some research my former SS teacher is quite sure that his father-in-law and his university professor were on opposite sides of an aerial engagement in World War two youngest survivor of the Hiroshima bombing in Japan not me but a very close family friend Coco Tanimoto the only way she survived as a toddler was her mother's body cradling her as a church fell on top of her she was five blocks from ground zero the radiation messed with her growth and she is a very short woman but the most courageous person I know I was at the Reno Air Races a few years ago when the plane crashed into the crowd my dad and I were sitting about 100 feet from where he crashed and we decided we could get a better view of the race a little farther down the flight line we were actually standing in front of that pilots pit with all his friends and family at the time which was an absolutely chilling experience [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: ReddiTV

Views: 64,275

Rating: 4.8747993 out of 5

Keywords: disaster survivor, disaster survivor stories, short survival stories, wtc stories, world trade center, tsunami survivor stories, survivors, survival, survival stories, askreddit, reddit stories, askreddit horror, reddit, r/askreddit, ask reddit, reddit story, askreddit stories, reddit top posts, best of r/askreddit, best of reddit, updoot, reddit aliens, redditv, reddit tv, toadfilms, askreddit scary, reddit horror, scary stories, scary, reddit horror stories

Id: Vuzj_RfRrXk

Length: 24min 43sec (1483 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 19 2019