News Events

Parent:
1.Space shuttle Challenger explosion: On January 28, 1986 the death of its seven crew members. They remember that everything seemed fine when it took off but then it just disappear. On the new they talked about how people went on a search for the debris to find the bodies. Found a few of the bodies strapped in their chairs. Made an impact on my parents that life is short and changed their perspective that you should not always take risks.

2. The death counts from the Vietnam War being announced every morning on the news while my mom ate her cereal at the breakfast table. The daily reminder of death as she started her day really impacted her thinking. To this day she will not read the obituary page and she tries to focus on positive thoughts.

3. The Great flood of the 90's here in the St. Louis area when the Missouri river levee broke and flooded Chesterfield valley. My mother was an executive at a company in Earth City which also bordered the Misssouri River. The executives were told that if the levee broke there would be 8 feet of water in 20 minutes or less at their office. There was no physical way for several hundred employees to escape in their cars. As a result, ladders were chained to poles and placed near exits for employees to climb onto the roof. Thankfully, the break actually occurred on a Saturday morning which minimized the loss of life. She remembers watching the news reports and pictures of Highway 40/64 as it rapidly disappeared under the water.

Me:
1. 911: This was a huge memorable news event for me because it happened in our own country in my life time. I remember going to grade school and looking at all the teachers and adults and seeing how sad and serious their faces were. We came together as a class and my third grade teachers told us what happened. I got most of the details from my parents when I got home that day as we watched the news all night. I was really young at the time so I was just shocked that something like that could happen here.
2. Hurricane Katrina: This was the first big hurricane in my life that I remember to be category 5 that hit our country and had a huge impact. I never really thought hurricanes can do that much damage till I heard about this one. I do remember it was the start of seventh grade and I would come home and hear on the news that a big hurricane was coming. However I did not expect it to destroy a city and have a bunch of people homeless and die.
3. The earthquake in Haiti: This was a big news event for me because it made me feel so upset to hear that one of the poorest countries in the world had one of the biggest earthquakes. I remember I found out this happened when I was in Junior year and I was on the Internet and it popped up on yahoo. Then I heard about it later that day on the news. I was just shocked that an earthquake can do that much damage to Haiti and I thought about how long it is going to take to rebuild it again.