In an Instant

The fragility of the world we inhabit is often overlooked. We naively believe that disaster comes shouting toward the people it affects, warning of the inevitable outcome long before death hits. In reality, sometimes it only whispers, and erases our fragile enviroment with a slip of the earth.

Rogers Pass Avalanche: On March 4, 1910, a crew of over 60 men were dispatched to Rogers Pass, B.C., to clear the railroad tracks of an avalanche that had fallen earlier in the day. As the men were working, a second avalanche stormed down on them and they were buried in the snow along with the train locomotive they had travelled on. Rescue parties dug 58 people out of the avalanche and 4 more were found when the snow melted in the spring.

Vaiont Dam: October 9, 1963, the lives of 2600 people were washed away in seven minutes as the concrete arch dam across the Vaiont River in Italy gave way. Completed in 1961, it was severely damaged by a massive landslide into the reservoir that generated waves as high as 260 meters and destroyed the town.