Lisbon Earthquake - Part 2: Warning signs missed, and a city unprepared for disaster

The first hint of disaster did not announce itself as a warning. It arrived as a violent, rolling shock that shattered the illusion of safety in Lisbon. In a matter of minutes, everything people trusted about their city began to fall apart.On the morning of November first, seventeen fifty five, at about nine forty, the earth beneath Lisbon moved in a way no one alive had ever experienced. The city was full—churches packed for All Saints’ Day, homes bustling with preparations, and the streets alive with worshippers. The shaking was not a brief tremor but a sustained convulsion. Later accounts described it as lasting six to nine minutes, though no instruments measured the true duration or force. That absence of data is its own kind of evidence. In those days, fear stood in for measurement.Learn more at: https://thedisasterarchive.com/disaster/lisbon-earthquake

The Disaster Archive is part of The Archive Network by Jonkai Ventures, a collection of podcasts dedicated to exploring history's greatest disasters and the lessons they leave behind.

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