Everyone’s life is touched at some time by disaster. But some disasters loom so large they are international events. The stories of those who live through such devastating events such as earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, fires, and floods are both heartbreaking and compelling. Often they are inspiring and uplifting.

SOS: Stories of Survival tells the tales of young survivors of such disasters — teenage coal miners trapped deep below the surface of the earth in Springhill, Nova Scotia; children who ran to escape the poisonous exploding gases spewing from Mont Pelee on Martinique; teens who rode the roofs of their homes in Pennsylvania’s roaring Johnstown Flood; and youngsters who survived, but still suffer from, the nuclear accident in Chernobyl.

Archival photos document these astounding sagas.