1 . Braving the elements

On Dec.26, Gelinne, 60, was looking out the back windows of his home at the frozen lake. Then an airplane came into his sight. Gelinne looked up just in time to see that small air plane a few hundred yards away, losing control.

As the plane disappeared behind the trees, Gelinne, a former Navy officer, realized it was going to land in the lake. He flashed on a moment from more than 20 years earlier: Gelinne was at work in a bank. When a fire alarm rang, he escaped from the chaos but has always wondered if he could have stayed inside and helped.

On this day, Gelinne didn’t hesitate. He ran down to the waterfront. The plane had skidded (侧滑) to a stop on the broad, frozen lake, far from shore. It was now sinking. The pilot was standing on the wing. Gelinne knew from his Navy training that even a few minutes in the icy water could kill the pilot.

Gelinne tested the ice with his foot and decided not to take any chances walking on it. So he pulled a boat out from under his back deck.

Then he set off, pushing his boat across the ice. It was tough work. When Gelinne reached the plane, it had broken through the ice and sunk; only its tail was visible. The pilot was standing on a tail wing, submerged up to his chest, surrounded by open water. Gelinne pushed his boat off the ice and into the water, paddling (划) toward the pilot.

Gelinne focused on keeping the pilot calm, joking, “Just hang on to the boat as if you were hugging your wife.” The pilot grabbed the boat’s bow, but Gelinne knew he had to get the pilot out of the water and up onto the shelf of unbroken ice behind him before the man lost too much body heat.

By now a police officer had arrived and radioed for help. A lifeboat appeared, breaking through ice as it arrived. It picked up the pilot and rushed him to safety. Later the boat returned to help Gelinne, now extremely tired, to shore.

“I’m 60 years old,” Gelinne says. “There was no way I could get him to shore.” Still, he was satisfied he’d gone the right way that day.

3 . Just a few hours ago, the Italian ship Andrea Doria was sailing through thick fog toward the city of New York. Captain Piero Calamai kept watch. He knew that many other ships were nearby. He should have slowed down because of the fog but he decided not to. He wanted to arrive on time the next morning.

At about 11:00 P.M., another ship, the Stockholm, suddenly hit the Andrea Doria. It made a huge hole in the Italian ship. Some people were badly hurt. Others fell into the sea. But one girl was saved by the Stockholm.

Linda Morgan was fourteen. She lived in Spain with her mother and her little sister. She was going to visit her father in New York. She was excited about seeing her father.

Linda had loved the trip. She wanted to have dinner with the captain on the last night at sea.The captain did not sit at his table that night, though. He was busy guiding the ship through the fog. Linda did not get to talk to him.

When Linda went to bed, everything seemed fine. Her mother turned off the lights. Linda talked to her little sister. She thought about seeing her father the next morning.

What happened next was a terrible surprise. Linda woke up not knowing where she was. She was not in her bed. When she called to her family, no one answered. Both her knees were broken.

Linda had been saved by an amazing accident. When the Stockholm made a hole in the side of the Andrea Doria, it lifted Linda out of her bed. She landed on the deck (甲板) of the Stockholm instead of falling into the ocean. A sailor heard her cries and found her.

Right now, the girl is in the hospital. She is expected to get better. Her father is at her side, glad that his little girl was saved. The Andrea Doria lies under the waves at the bottom of the sea.

6 . While driving home after work, Jane Hodgson noticed a car pulled over at the side of the road and a crowd beginning to gather around someone who was lying on the ground.

Jane, who had completed a first aid at work course, pulled over to see if she could offer any help — and it turned out to be lucky for the young injured girl that she did.

Describing the scene she came across, Jane says: “The onlookers were ashen-faced and looking lost. They were so shocked that they hadn’t even thought to call for an ambulance yet.”

After speaking to the emergency services, Jane started finding out what had happened and what injuries the young girl called Jenny had. The girl had been hit by a car and gone over the handlebars of her bike, landing on her head and shoulder. Her shoulder and arm were twisted (扭曲) underneath her.

“She hadn’t been wearing a helmet (头盔) when she got knocked down, and I thought that she should not be moved as I couldn’t be sure about a spinal injury (脊椎损伤), but after looking her over and checking the circulation in her injured arm I did feel fairly confident that she had escaped relatively unhurt.

“As we were waiting for an ambulance, the amount of pain the girl was in was increasing. To distract (分散注意力) her and minimize the risk of her going into shock I kept her talking. She held my hand tightly when the pain got too much and this helped. I told her I could handle it — we laughed about that,” describes Jane.

Later, a doctor from the local hospital’s ICU stopped at the scene too. The ICU doctor decided that Jenny should lie on her back, making her much more comfortable until the emergency services arrived.

Thinking back, Jane says: “For me, knowing that in a small way I helped that girl through what was a frightening experience is all the reward I need. I felt great to know I’d made a difference and I’d do it again.”

8 . It was a bright May afternoon along the Maryland coast. Jonathan Bauer, and his 13-year-old daughter, Ava, were driving with the windows down as they headed home on the bridge. Suddenly, the calm was disturbed by the squeal of tires.

Not far ahead of them, a pickup(皮卡车) was drifting from one lane to the other. It slammed into a concrete barrier, flipped over the car directly ahead of them, and came to rest hanging over the railing of the bridge. Bauer hit the brakes in time, but another car came sliding backward toward him and struck his car’s fender(挡泥板). Bauer stopped his car. “Ava, are you OK?” he asked. She was shaken, but otherwise unhurt.

And then a scream came from the pickup above the waters of the bay. The driver dashed to the railing. Bauer ran up beside him. The man pointed down, saying something in Spanish. There was a car seat in the water. Struggling next to it was a girl, about two years old, terrified, floating on her back and crying.

Matters quickly went worse when the girl rolled over onto her stomach. “Ava! Stay by the car!” Bauer yelled, drooping to remove his shoes. Would he get hurt? Could he reach the girl in time? No time to wonder. All he had in mind was the faith that she must be saved immediately.

A moment later he was bouncing off the sandy bottom-unhurt! Bauer swam to the girl and lifted her out of the water: mouth half open, eyes nearly closed, not breathing. Standing, he laid her against his shoulder and hit at her back with the flat of his hand. Water came streaming from her mouth and slowly her eyes were opened. He pulled her close, hugging her to shelter her from the cold.

A boat pulled up and hauled them aboard. Ava Bauer was so inspired by her father’s actions that four months later she became a firefighter so that she, too, could save lives. “That girl is going to live a whole life because of him,” she says. “It’s incredible.”

9 . There have been several incidents at some events in recent years where people died because of stampedes (踩踏).     1     Indeed, it’s a frightening situation to be in and circumstances may make it impossible to escape. But there are several strategies that could help you avoid a potentially deadly outcome.

·Don’t panic and conserve your energy

Panicking will not help you free yourself from a developing stampede. Stay calm and focused.     2     If a stampede occurs, you’ll need all the physical energy you can muster.

·Keep pace with the crowd

If the crowd is moving in one direction, it’s best to go with the flow.     3     If the group becomes too tightly packed, you could run out of air for choking.

·    4    

One potential way to handle the situation is to shield yourself and allow the crowd to move past you. Look for a solid structure to stand behind such as a pillar or a wall, or other places to hide: behind a car or even a lamppost.

·Guard your head

    5     If you can’t, curl up on one side and protect your head. You do not want to be knocked unconscious in this situation.

Just remember to calm down, guard your head, and go with the flow of the crowd until you are able to safely escape.

10 . Wayne Boone knew he should be dead. His cab(驾驶室)had crashed into the guardrail on the far right edge, destroying the metal barrier that protected his truck from dropping into the water below, almost flying through the air. It all happened so fast. How was he still alive? Somehow, the back of his cab had got stuck on the bridge’s edge before it could complete its falling. His empty trailer(拖车), meanwhile, leaned to the left, sliding sideways at a 90-degree angle to the cab.

Whatever the force was that held the cab on the edge, Boone knew it couldn’t last. He was injured, but his body had yet to fully noticed the pain. He forced himself to focus. If he had any chance of escaping the cab and surviving, he had to get free from his seat belt. The cracked windshield(挡风玻璃)beneath him exposed the dark waters below. If he put any weight on the glass, he risked bursting through and falling the rest of the way. Under the howl of the wind, he heard voices from above. “It’s about to go!”   

Got to get free. Releasing his seat belt, Boone tried to hold on to the seat, but he immediately slid into the windshield. The glass shifted in its frame. He climbed upward, aware that he was getting cut along the way. He slipped again. And again. Each time his feet met the windshield, the glass gave a little more. The next time could be the last. Gathering all his strength, he pulled himself between the seats and threw himself back as far as he could behind the driver’s seat.

Minutes passed—to Boone, it felt like hours—before he heard the approaching whistle. To his ears, the harsh sound could have been angels singing. Hearing people shout with joy when they saw a firefighter deliver him to safety, Boone felt his heart full of gratitude. He was rushed to the hospital.