Disaster Fiction
These are stories based around historical disasters.
Avalanche
- Bennett, Jean Below the mountains: the diary of Amy McDonald, Milford Road, 1935-36
- It is 1935 during the Great Depression, and Amy’s Dad is working on the new Milford Road in Fiordland. But the risk from avalanches is high, especially in the area where the Homer Tunnel is being driven through the mountains…
Earthquake
- McVeagh, Janine Earthquake: the diary of Katie Bourke, Napier 1930-1931
- It is the time of the Great Depression, and Katie Bourke’s family are finding it a struggle to keep food on the table. But when Katie returns to school after the summer holidays, everything appears to be normal until the classroom floor begins to shake…
- Yep, Laurence The earth dragon awakes: the San Francisco earthquake of 1906
- Two friends tell of their experiences in the early hours of the morning when the San Francisco earthquake changed their lives.
About the Napier Earthquake
Epidemics: Influenza, Plague, Poliomyelitis, Yellow Fever
- Anderson, Laurie Halse Fever 1793
- 14 year-old Mattie Cook is ambitious and adventurous, but before she can put her plans for her grandfather’s coffeehouse into action, the city of Philadelphia is stricken by a yellow fever epidemic.
- Batistich, Amelia A better life: the diary of Ivana Ivanovich, Dargaville, 1924-25
- When, at the end of 1924 a polio (infantile paralysis) epidemic spreads throughout New Zealand, children are the most affected. Schools and movie theatres close, and Ivana is not even allowed to go to church.
- Ell, Sarah When the war came home
- November 1918 the end of the first World War, and the time when the influenza epidemic spreading across Europe arrived in New Zealand. While his mother leaves Auckland with the younger members of the family, Jimmy K remains behind with his uncle.
Hooper, Mary At the sign of the Sugared Plum- Hannah makes her first trip to London to help her sister in her shop “The Sugared Plum”, not knowing that the plague has broken out and hundreds are dying in the city.
- Lasenby, Jack The waterfall
- The Seddon Street gang are sent to stay on Uncle Ted’s farm to escape the threat of the polio epidemic. Sequel to Dead man’s head
- Oldfield, Pamela The great plague: the diary of Alice Paynton, London, 1665-1666
- Alice Paynton is almost 14 years old when plague strikes London. Her Aunt Nell falls ill while her father is away from home, and Alice must be shut up alone in the house with her dying aunt, until she either dies or survives.
About the 1918 Influenza Epidemic
Famine
Drinkwater, Carol The hunger: the diary of Phyllis McCormack, Ireland, 1845-1847- The lives of Phyllis and her family are totally dependent on the success of the potato crop. Then disease strikes, and overnight the potatoes rot in the ground…
- Giff, Patricia Reilly Nory Ryan’s song
- Nory lives on the west coast of Ireland where many people have left the community and emigrated to America. Nory dreams of leaving too, but then a terrible blight strikes the potato crop, turning the potatoes into a rotten black slush overnight. Without potatoes to feed them, thousands of Irish people will starve to death.
Fires
- Trease, Geoffrey Fire on the wind
- London, 1666. The great city has still not fully recovered from the effects of the terrible plague when another disaster strikes. A small fire breaks out, but the summer has been hot and dry, and strong winds fan the blaze into a raging inferno.
Railway Accident
- Hill, David Journey to Tangiwai: the diary of Peter Cotterill, Napier, 1953
- Peter is a scout, and his patrol is travelling by train to Auckland to compete in a first aid contest. But it is Christmas Eve, 1953, and the crater wall of Mt Ruapehu has collapsed, sending a torrent of mud, water and ice down into the Whangehu River, and smashing the rail bridge near the small town of Tangiwai.
About the Tangiwai Rail Disaster
Shipwreck
- Bunting, Eve SOS Titanic
- Fifteen-year-old Barry O'Neill, travelling from Ireland to America on the maiden voyage of the Titanic, finds his life endangered when the ship hits an iceberg and begins to sink.
- Corlett, Shirley Abandon ship!: the diary of Debbie Atherton, Wellington, 1968
- Debbie is returning to Wellington from Christchurch on the inter-island ferry, Wahine, when two storm fronts meet over Wellington, turning the Wellington Harbour into a raging sea where the Wahine struggles to survive.
Hill, David No safe harbour- Twins Stuart and Sandra are coming home to Wellington on the overnight ferry from Lyttelton. But it is April 1968 and the ship is the Wahine.
- White, Ellen Emerson Voyage on the great Titanic: the diary of Margaret Ann Brady
- Margaret Ann is on the maiden voyage of the great new ship, the Titanic, when disaster strikes!
- Williams, Barbara Titanic crossing
- Albert Trask is travelling back to the United States on the Titanic when the great ship strikes an iceberg will he and his family survive?
About the Wahine Ferry Disaster
Volcanic Eruption
- Corlett, Shirley Fire in the sky: the diary of James Collier, Tarawera, 1886
- James and his father have travelled to the village of Te Wairoa so that his father can paint the marvellous Pink and White Terraces. But one night the earth begins to shake, and an enormous volcanic eruption lights the sky. Mt Tarawera has erupted.
Locke, Elsie A canoe in the mist- Lillian lives with her mother at Te Wairoa, where tourists come to see the Pink and White Terraces. But a mysterious ‘waka wairua’, a ghost canoe, has been seen on the lake, and a tohunga is prophesying doom and disaster.
About the Mt Tarawera Volcano
New Zealand Disaster Fact Files - for more information about historical disasters