Buzz
Mother Nature has long been known as the deadliest force on Earth. However, even her most catastrophic events have been overcome by some fortunate souls. Over time, individuals have survived intense firestorms, lightning strikes, and even the terrifying wildlife of Australia.
10. Empress of the Ocean
The Queen of the Sea was a Sri Lankan train that tragically lived up to its watery name. One December, as the overcrowded train neared its final stop, a massive wave from the catastrophic 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami struck. All eight carriages were immediately submerged and violently thrown off the tracks.
Daya Wijaya Gunawardana, a Colombo-based restaurateur, miraculously survived when the coach he was riding in flipped over four times. But once the train stopped, his challenges had just begun. Trapped in the flooded train, he couldn’t locate his two adult children. After almost an hour in the chaos with a crowd desperate to escape, Gunawardana managed to climb out through a window. He later reunited with his family as they fled uphill to avoid a second wave.
The second wave, however, proved disastrous for passenger Shenth Ravinda, who could do nothing but watch as the relentless wall of destruction approached him while he was still trapped inside the Queen. Miraculously surviving the second round of devastation, Ravinda limped two kilometers (1.3 miles) in search of help. Despite the horrors, he could never forget the screams of many child passengers who didn’t make it. Depending on the source, between 800–1,700 passengers lost their lives, making this one of the deadliest train disasters in history.
9. The Captive of St. Pierre
Louis-Auguste Cyparis, an escaped convict, surrendered to the authorities in May 1902, a choice that ultimately saved his life. A resident of St. Pierre on the Caribbean island of Martinique, Cyparis’s escape attempt led to his sentence of solitary confinement in the prison's dungeon.
The month prior, the people of St. Pierre had started to feel tremors from the nearby Mt. Pelee volcano. Soon, thick clouds of ash and the unbearable smell of sulfur filled the air. Venomous snakes fleeing the volcano invaded St. Pierre and nearby villages, killing 200 animals and 50 humans. A major warning came when a boiling mudflow from the volcano struck a distillery, killing 23 workers and triggering a tsunami that damaged the waterfront of St. Pierre. But it was the blind trust in their leaders that sealed the fate of the people of St. Pierre.
After the mudflow, many residents started fleeing the city, which prompted Governor Louis Moutett to send in the military to prevent any more from escaping. In an attempt to calm the citizens—and maintain order for the upcoming elections—he ordered the local newspaper to falsely declare St. Pierre safe and ignored a report from a group of unqualified investigators who claimed there was no danger. This only worsened the situation as 8,000 refugees from the surrounding countryside sought shelter in the city.
On the morning of May 8, Mt. Pelee erupted, sending a pyroclastic flow down its southern slope with such speed that it reached St. Pierre in under a minute. The devastation was total. Strong buildings were shattered as if made of plaster, while superheated gases boiled, burned, or poisoned people almost instantly. A rum depot quickly caught fire, transforming the streets into rivers of flames, while ships in the harbor ignited. Still in solitary confinement, Cyparis endured severe burns and four days of agony in his cell. But against all odds, he survived. Of the 28,000 residents, only Cyparis and a shoemaker were left alive in the city.
8. The Cloud Suck Survivor
As strange as it may sound, the most terrifying ordeal of Ewa Wisnierska’s life began when she got sucked into a cloud. The seasoned German paraglider was one of approximately 120 participants training for the 2007 Paragliding World Championships in Manilla, Australia. After two hours of smooth flying in perfect weather, Wisnierska spotted a growing thunderstorm ahead. With caution, she decided to steer clear of it, fearing a dangerous phenomenon known as “cloud suck”—where a powerful updraft near a storm pulls a glider into the clouds.
Unfortunately, Wisnierska misjudged the cloud's behavior. As she approached one that seemed safe, the terrifying updraft suddenly seized her glider and shot her upward at a rate of 20 meters (66 feet) per second. Blinded by ice and the darkening storm, she struggled against rain, hail, and violent turbulence. The real threats, however, were lightning strikes, lack of oxygen, and the freezing cold. Despite the odds, Wisnierska fought to prevent her glider from completely collapsing. But at an altitude higher than Mount Everest and nearly encased in ice, her body eventually gave in, and she lost consciousness for about 40 minutes.
Her glider's instruments indicated that Wisnierska was now flying at half the speed needed to stay in the air, and at an altitude with dangerously low oxygen levels. She should have perished from that alone, but the loss of consciousness and the slowing of her bodily functions ironically helped her survive. The ice surrounding her body may have provided an unexpected insulation from the cold. Against all odds, she survived until a powerful downdraft rapidly pulled her glider toward the ground, waking her in the process. Disoriented and frozen, she still managed to land on a farm, unable to move. Her rescue came when her ground team reached her via her cell phone.
Wisnierska endured severe frostbite and bruises, but she was relatively fortunate. Not far from where she battled the thunderstorm, another paraglider, He Zhongpin from China, was fighting for his life. Sadly, He wasn’t as lucky—he was struck and killed by a lightning bolt.
7. The Snow Man
In 2012, a pair of Swedish snowmobilers stumbled upon what they thought was an abandoned car wreck outside the town of Umea. However, when police and rescue workers dug through the thick snow around the vehicle, they were shocked to find an emaciated man lying in a sleeping bag in the backseat. The 45-year-old man was so weak that he could barely speak, but he managed to tell his rescuers that he had been trapped by the snow for two months.
The discovery seemed miraculous, but it quickly sparked controversy after the man, later identified as Peter Skyllberg, claimed that he had not eaten a single bite during that time. Scientists pointed out that most people would succumb to starvation after about four weeks, but others noted that hunger strikers can survive for up to 60 days, albeit usually in warmer conditions. Meanwhile, Skyllberg’s rescuers have suggested that he could have escaped the car if he had wanted to, leading some to believe that his near-death experience was more of a suicide attempt than an accident.
Skyllberg’s survival was undoubtedly extraordinary, leading some to speculate that it might indicate a form of human hibernation. Others, however, believe true hibernation is beyond human capability. They argue that Skyllberg’s survival could be attributed to the warmth of his clothing, which helped conserve his energy as he remained bundled in the sleeping bag and ate snow. The car, snowed over, likely benefited from insulation, much like an igloo.
6. Deadly Jelly
In 2009, Rachael Shardlow never anticipated she would make medical history when she went for a swim in Australia’s Calliope River. The 10-year-old was cooling off when her older brother, Sam, had to quickly pull her out of the water. She was struggling to see and breathe, soon becoming limp and unresponsive. As Sam pulled her toward the shore, he noticed long tentacles wrapped around her legs.
It turned out that the tentacles were from the most venomous creature on Earth: the box jellyfish. Experts were astonished to find Rachael recovering in a hospital rather than being wheeled into a morgue. No one in recorded history has survived such a severe sting from a box jellyfish. The venom is so excruciating that many victims immediately go into shock and drown. As if that wasn't enough, it also targets the heart and nervous system. However, Rachael walked out of the hospital six weeks later with only scars from the tentacles and some short-term memory loss. As the only known survivor of such an encounter, she offers the scientific community a rare opportunity to study the long-term effects of a jellyfish sting.
5. Roy Sullivan
Starting in 1942, park ranger Roy Sullivan became the improbable recipient of a lightning strike no less than seven times. This incredible feat earned him a unique place in the Guinness World Records for surviving more lightning strikes than anyone else. His job might have contributed to the frequency, as six of the strikes occurred while he was working at Shenandoah National Park, where he served for 36 years. Though park rangers face a higher risk than most professions, the oddity of Sullivan's situation is particularly remarkable.
Typically, the safest place to be during a lightning storm is in a car with the windows rolled up, but Sullivan was still struck while driving in 1969. While traveling along a mountain road, a lightning bolt hit two trees on either side. After striking the first, the bolt shot towards the second and passed through Sullivan’s open windows, burning off his eyebrows. The only time he wasn’t struck within the park was when he briefly stepped out to collect his mail.
Cruelly dubbed “Sparky,” Sullivan may have even indirectly caused his wife to be struck by lightning. While they were hanging laundry, a bolt hit her instead of him. Thankfully, Mrs. Sullivan proved just as resilient to lightning as her husband. In 1983, after six years of being lightning-free, Sullivan ended his extraordinary streak by tragically taking his own life with a gunshot to the head.
4. Grace Newberry
The deadliest fire in U.S. history erupted in the forests of Wisconsin during the parched summer of 1871. After claiming the lives of every resident in the village of Sugar Bush, the fire spread toward the town of Peshtigo, where Grace Newberry lived with her husband and two sons.
At the time, Peshtigo was a nightmare for safety inspectors. As one of the leading producers of wood products in the nation, the town’s roads were coated in sawdust, and nearly every building was constructed from timber. So when the fire struck on October 8, the entire town erupted like a furnace, quickly claiming the lives of 1,200 residents.
Unaware that many others seeking refuge in water had already perished from the heat, Grace Newberry and her family desperately sought shelter in a pond. According to Grace’s sister-in-law, Martha, the air itself seemed to be ablaze. Grace lost everything when her husband tried to flee with their two sons, sealing their fate. Those who remained in the pond survived, including Grace. Martha Newberry lost her father, four brothers, two sisters-in-law, and five nephews and nieces to the fire. Grace witnessed 89 bodies scattered around and later suffered temporary blindness due to the fire's effects. She eventually relocated to Vermont with a new husband and had two more children.
3. Halima Suley
On August 21, 1986, Halima Suley, a villager from Cameroon, was about to go to bed when she heard a strange rumble. Living with her extended family by the shores of Lake Nyos, she then felt a sudden gust sweep through the house before she lost consciousness. Others saw a geyser-like eruption from the lake followed by a fog that rose about 100 meters (330 ft) above the water. This cloud spread across the land, killing or knocking out everyone within a 25-kilometer (15.5 mi) radius.
The next morning, Halima’s screams alerted fellow survivor Ephriam Che, but there was little he could do for her. She was in a state of shock, desperately attempting to revive her 35 deceased family members, including her four children. Nearby, Suley’s 400 cattle were also dead. When Che checked on his own family, he found the bodies of his parents, siblings, aunts, and uncles. All around, people seemed to have perished in their sleep, while those who survived were left to face the unbearable loss of loved ones, triggering several suicides. The valley was filled with corpses, and most of the 1,800 victims were buried in mass graves.
It was later determined that the valley had been suffocated by a toxic cloud made up of vast amounts of carbon dioxide. After years of speculation, scientists concluded that a landslide—perhaps the rumbling noise the victims had heard—had released CO2 trapped at the lake’s bottom. The one piece of solace for Suley was that her husband had been away on business that night. The couple eventually rebuilt their life and had five more children.
2. The Ultimate Survivor
Throughout his remarkable life, 76-year-old Vanuatuan Lik Simelum has faced and survived nearly every type of natural disaster, including volcanic eruptions, landslides, earthquakes, and cyclones.
Nature’s first attempt on Simelum’s life occurred when he was just 11 years old, living on the island of Ambryn. The local volcano erupted for almost a year, destroying crops and making the water undrinkable. The situation became so dire that the French and British governments were forced to evacuate most of the island’s residents, sending Simelum’s family to Epi Island. Unfortunately, Epi Island wasn’t much safer, as it was struck by a cyclone just weeks later. The severe rains caused landslides, and one of them tore through Simelum’s house at night, killing his father and brother. His mother survived by clinging to the rafters, despite suffering a broken back, while Simelum and two of his sisters were fortunate to be away from home at the time.
After his mother recovered, she and Simelum relocated once again, this time to the main island of Efate, where he grew up and became a teacher. He went on to survive both Cyclones Uma and Pam, both of which caused significant damage to his home through winds, floods, and mudslides. Cyclone Pam was especially devastating, destroying thousands of homes and claiming at least 17 lives. In 2009, Simelum also had to flee his house when a massive 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Vanuatu. Despite the United Nations identifying Vanuatu as the country most vulnerable to natural disasters, Simelum’s ability to survive these calamities remains extraordinary.
1. Harrison Okene
In 2013, Harrison Okene was working as the cook aboard a Nigerian tugboat. Early one morning, as the tug was towing an oil tanker, disaster struck. A massive wave hit the tug, capsizing it and snapping the rope that was securing it to the tanker. Okene, who was in the bathroom at the time, was thrown into the chaos, dressed only in his boxer shorts. By sheer luck, he found an air pocket in the engineer’s office and survived, though all 11 of his crew members, who had been locked in their cabins as a safety measure against pirates, drowned.
Now trapped on the ocean floor, Harrison faced an unimaginable situation. The tug had sunk to a depth of 30 meters (100 ft), leaving him with nothing but a single bottle of Coca-Cola to survive on. His boxers provided no warmth, the air in the pocket wouldn’t last long, and he was breathing in dangerous carbon dioxide. To make matters worse, Okene could hear unsettling noises, which he feared were sharks or barracudas feeding on his fellow crew members.
Against all odds, Harrison Okene survived. He managed to climb onto a raised platform that kept him above the icy waters that could have killed him in hours. The surrounding seawater also helped keep him alive by absorbing the excess CO2 in the air pocket. South African rescue divers, initially searching for bodies, were stunned to see a hand waving at them. After almost three days with little oxygen remaining, Harrison was safely extracted from the wreck inside a decompression chamber.
