6 terrible tragedies with amazing endings

History is full of events of colossal havoc, meaningless tragedies that came out of nowhere and killed an extraordinary number of people. However, not all major disasters were responsible for causing only bad things.

From time to time, a tragedy, while tremendously horrible to those involved, transforms a situation or environment for the better. The events you will see below may show a little that sometimes evil comes for good.

6 - Hurricane Katrina Improves Children's Health

Katrina was one of the deadliest hurricanes to hit the United States, which killed about 2, 000 people and left 85% of the city of New Orleans under water. The aftermath of the flood revealed a crumbling city with massive damage worth about $ 80 billion and a homelessness crisis. On the other hand, the tragedy favored an improvement in the health of children in the affected places.

Before Katrina, the lead concentration in the soil of New Orleans was surprisingly high, as were the levels of the element in children's blood as a result. When the hurricane hit the city, the flooding flooding through the city “washed away” most of the contaminated soil.

According to a 2010 study, lead levels dropped 39% as a direct result of Katrina, with a corresponding drop in blood element rates in children born after the storm. In other words, this great tragedy has resulted in a new generation of healthy children, free from the harmful effects of excess lead.

5 - The massacre that led to Indian independence

The Amritsar Massacre accounted for the deaths of 400 unarmed Indian protesters who were annihilated by British soldiers. It was a cruel waste of so many meaningless lives. A tragedy from which nothing good could have come except when it came to the knowledge of Mohandas Gandhi (or Mahatma).

Prior to the massacre, Gandhi had been a pragmatist, supporting Britain in World War I in the hope of gaining some degree of autonomy for India. However, after the massacre in 1915, its persistent relationship with the British empire was completely destroyed.

As a direct result of this horrible tragedy, Gandhi became a fierce defender of Indian independence, creating his nonviolent movement that changed the country's history. So without the horrible massacre, there could not have been in modern India the greatest example of peaceful protest in history.

4 - Nuclear Disasters That Helped Wildlife

Depending on your age, the words "nuclear disaster" will probably evoke one of two names: Chernobyl or Fukushima. Both were horrible tragedies that marked the history of their nation and around the world. Both disasters have dumped absurd amounts of radiation into the environment, the effects of which will still be felt for decades. However, both have done their part to help local wildlife.

Sounds crazy, but research has found that radioactive land can be beneficial to animals. As a result of the Fukushima crisis, scientists are now able to keep up with the previously elusive bluefin tuna for the amount of cesium in its body, helping conservationists preserve this rapidly disappearing species.

In Chernobyl something even more amazing happens. Once the city was abandoned due to radioactivity, critically endangered animals in Ukraine moved back and took up residence. The area is now regarded as an accidental wildlife sanctuary, with animal populations growing at levels never seen in decades.

3 - The earthquake that drove the economy

In 1964, one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded in history destroyed huge stretches of Alaska, killing 139 people and causing millions of dollars in damage. It was a shocking natural tragedy that wreaked havoc but drove the development of this American state.

Five years after the earthquake, analysts Howard Kunreuther and Douglas Dacy published an economic analysis of the disaster and subsequent reconstruction efforts. They found that the huge amounts of money destined for the devastated state as well as government loans for reconstruction projects were quickly recovered in favor of the economy in the short term.

They also concluded that many Alaska residents became more productive after the earthquake. Obviously, this does not compensate for the suffering and loss of life experienced by those affected, but it shows that something good (however small) can come from even the worst tragedies.

2 - The Antarctic Tragedy That Changed Science

In 1912, Robert Falcon Scott set out to claim the South Pole for the British. What followed was a sequence of tragic events. First because Scott and his team failed to reach their destination before their rivals in Norway, because they wasted a day collecting rock samples and then were trapped by a storm, where they died less than 12 hours from a safe place.

As a result, the expedition was a failure in every way except that it redefined entire branches of science. When the rescue team found Scott and his men buried in the snow, they also discovered several bags of rock samples. In the analysis, one of these rocks turned out to be the fossil of an extinct fern genus called Glossopteris .

And that just happened to prove that the continents have already been united. In 1912, no one believed that continents changed over time. Then this fossil appeared in an incredibly remote Antarctic location, coinciding with samples found in India, Africa and Australia.

1 - The fire that created a modern metropolis

The great Chicago fire was a major tragedy in the summer of 1871 that killed three hundred people and left ninety thousand homeless. The fire is estimated to have caused more than $ 200 million in damage to the city.

At that time, Chicago was the world's largest wood producer. Buildings, houses, and even streets were almost all built of this material. That summer of 1871, an extremely hot and dry season, with only a quarter of normal rainfall, set the stage for a big fire. It was started in a stable in the southern part of the city and quickly spread due to strong dry winds, devastating the entire city.

The fire was considered one of the worst disasters in American history. However, there is a school of thought that suggests the fire was directly responsible for turning the ruins of this small town into a large metropolis.

Before the fire, Chicago was a mess, a lively but cramped and illogical city inhabited by 334, 000 people. The fire changed all that. With huge areas of the city turned to ashes, the chance to rebuild also offered the opportunity to create a new and better city of Chicago.

A new restructuring plan more consistent with a modern metropolis has been set, giving rise to the large city that Chicago is today. Without fire, America's third most populous city would probably now be just another backwater.

* Originally posted on 27/02/2014.

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