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From a woman who spent 17 months living in a cave to the only woman to survive the Titanic disaster, and individuals who survived a tornado against all odds, these remarkable survival stories highlight human resilience in the face of life-threatening challenges. Their experiences offer a testament to the strength and determination that can prevail even in the most extreme circumstances.
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00:01So, what's the longest you can survive without looking at your phone or watch to check the time?
00:06My personal record is about 13 minutes.
00:09But someone has no trouble living without knowing the time for 63 days.
00:15In the summer of 1962, a French chap named Michel Cifre took off his watch and went down into a
00:22cave in the French Alps.
00:23The then 23-year-old spent the next couple of months in complete isolation and without seeing the sun.
00:30And that's how he accidentally became the founder of a whole field of science called chronobiology, or the study of
00:38biological rhythms.
00:41Michel's original plan was to study an underground glacier he had discovered earlier.
00:46He wanted to spend 15 days underground, but then thought it wouldn't be enough to do serious research and decided
00:53to stay there for two months in the dark.
00:55It wasn't the comfiest of vacations, as his feet were always wet, and his body temperature was way lower than
01:02usual.
01:02He spent his free time reading, writing, thinking about his future, and studying his surroundings.
01:08He also slept well and ate when he felt like it.
01:11There was a team waiting at the entrance of the cave.
01:14They agreed the scientists would let them know when he woke up, ate, and before going to sleep.
01:20The team wasn't allowed to contact him, just to record when he was sending signals to make sure he was
01:25safe and sound and keep track of his life cycle.
01:29Cifre also informed them of his pulse and counted from 1 to 120, one digit per second.
01:35And that's how they found out his perception of time was seriously off.
01:39It took him 5 minutes to finish that task instead of the regular 2 minutes.
01:44When the team told him it was time to get out of the cave, he was confident it was only
01:49August, but it was already the 14th of September.
01:53Cifre thinks it had to do with an almost total absence of light.
01:57He had just a little lightbulb in the cave.
02:00It all felt like one long day to him.
02:02And his memory couldn't keep track of what he was doing yesterday or two days before.
02:10The most important result of his experiment was proving that people, just like animals, do have an internal clock that
02:17doesn't depend on the day and night cycles.
02:19Cifre didn't stop there and went on dozens of expeditions to spend some time inside caves.
02:26Ten years later, he started a six-month experiment in Texas.
02:29All this helped him to find that when people don't have time cues, they switch to a 48-hour cycle,
02:36not the 24-1 we're used to.
02:38It would be 36 hours of activity and 12 to 14 hours of sleep.
02:42NASA used the results of his experiments to help astronauts who had short-term memory issues after some time in
02:49isolation.
02:53Now, in 2021, a Spanish woman beat Cifre's cave record.
02:58Beatrice Flamini spent 500 days in a cave outside of Granada, with basically no contact with the rest of the
03:05world.
03:06She insisted that the support crew wouldn't give her any news at all, even if something happened to her family
03:12members.
03:12The idea of this rough experiment was to test her own limits, and also help scientists understand how staying in
03:19such extreme conditions affects the human mind and body.
03:23During the experiment called Time Cave, Flamini received food from a drop-off point and sent GoPro videos of herself
03:31to the support crew.
03:32They checked the footage to make sure she was physically and mentally fine.
03:36Flamini spent the entire time working out, reading books, painting, weaving, and making food.
03:43She didn't shower, but the support team took out her natural waste once every five days.
03:49At some point, flies filled the cave, but Flamini braved on and continued the experiment.
03:55Around day 300, she had to leave the cave and stay in a tent in isolation for about eight days
04:01because of a technical issue.
04:02When 500 days elapsed, the support crew found Flamini sleeping.
04:07She had lost track of time completely and said it always felt like 4 a.m. to her.
04:13She didn't want to leave as she hadn't finished the book she was reading.
04:16Although she started hearing things that weren't real and had a strong craving for roast chicken,
04:22the extreme athlete never even considered leaving the time cave earlier than planned.
04:27Researchers from several Spanish universities will analyze the data from this unusual experiment.
04:36Intrigate biological rhythms govern our lives, from the smallest cellular processes to the functioning of the entire body.
04:44These rhythms regulate various aspects of your physiology, including sleep patterns, body temperature,
04:50hormonal balance, metabolism, and cardiovascular activity.
04:55Many diseases get stronger during nighttime or in the morning.
04:59Shift work disrupts the balance between internal rhythms and external time, so scientists blame it for diseases.
05:06Jet lag is a good example of how your internal clock gets out of whack because you move to a
05:11different time zone.
05:13But light, especially when you catch it at certain times, can help reset your body clock.
05:18When you see light at the end of the night, it nudges your clock forward, and early evening light can
05:24push it back a bit.
05:25It takes about a day for your body to catch up with each hour of time difference.
05:30And since our natural body clock ticks around 24.2 hours, it's easier for us to adjust to longer days
05:38out west than shorter ones out east.
05:40That's why when athletes or researchers live underground for a while, they end up feeling like they're in a time
05:46warp.
05:49Back in the 70s, scientists found the circadian clock mechanism in a fruit fly.
05:54It has to do with different genes.
05:56One gene revs up the other, which then puts the brakes on the first gene, creating a swinging rhythm.
06:02During the day, when the sun's up, a photoreceptor tells certain parts of the loop to relax.
06:09There's a whole complex network of molecules and neurons making sure everything ticks just right.
06:15Every living thing's got its own circadian clock, with its own set of clock genes doing the work.
06:21Besides light, other stuff, like temperature and food, helps sync up an organism's clock with the outside world.
06:30Now, if you're feeling adventurous and want to try cave isolation yourself, how about the deepest one on our planet?
06:37Very often a cave.
06:39It only got this title in early 2018.
06:41It was explored step by step, deeper and deeper.
06:45The first expedition to this cave in the West Caucasus only explored around 5% of it, but it was
06:51already nearly 400 feet.
06:53It was obvious there was much more to this cave, with a small entrance diving into the limestone of Earth's
06:59crust.
07:00Expeditions from all over the world went back there until they finally reached the bottom.
07:07We've heard so much information about this terrible tragedy that happened on the night of April 14, 1912.
07:14What really caused the disaster?
07:17Could the Titanic passengers have been saved?
07:19Was the ship cursed?
07:21All these questions still remain unanswered.
07:24So this time, let's not focus on the tragic side of the event, but on the fantastic stories of people
07:30who miraculously managed to survive that day, and what happened to them in the future.
07:37As you know, when Titanic crashed into the iceberg, the ship's crew first evacuated the women and children.
07:43But among the passengers, one woman remained on the sunken vessel and survived after it went underwater.
07:50Her name was Rhoda Abbott.
07:52She and her two sons lived in England and had been living there for two years before they decided to
07:58return home to Providence, Rhode Island.
08:00Rhoda bought three third-class tickets for the most modern and unsinkable ship of that time.
08:06The whole family slept in their cabin on that ominous night from April 14 to 15.
08:11They didn't feel the jolt and got up only after the steward knocked on the door.
08:17He asked them to wear life jackets and go to the upper deck.
08:20Then, along with other third-class passengers, they waited in line to board the lifeboats.
08:26The crew members allowed only women and little kids to go further.
08:30Still, the brothers negotiated with the team and walked their mother to the lifeboat.
08:35All three went to the last lifeboat, but the crew asked the sons to leave since not all the women
08:41had been evacuated.
08:43Rhoda didn't want to leave her sons, so she decided to stay with them.
08:48She left the boat and hugged the boys.
08:50By this time, the ship was sinking into a stern-up position.
08:54The deck tilted.
08:56Rhoda tried to hold her sons but couldn't.
08:58She slapped off the deck and fell into the icy water.
09:02From there, she swam to the lifeboat that was washed away from the deck.
09:07Rhoda climbed aboard and watched the Titanic go under the water.
09:11Unfortunately, she was unable to save her two sons.
09:14Besides her, there were 13 people in the boat.
09:17But in the end, no one except Rhoda survived.
09:21A few hours later, the ship Carpathia arrived and found a nearly frozen Rhoda in the boat.
09:27The vessel arrived almost three days later in New York, where Rhoda was hospitalized, and she lay there for about
09:35two weeks.
09:36Swimming in cold water caused her asthma, which remained with her for life.
09:40Later, she admitted that she hadn't regretted that she had refused to evacuate with other women,
09:46because she got a little extra time to spend with her sons that night.
09:52Another survivor of Titanic was Violet Jessup.
09:55She boarded the ship not as a passenger, but as a working staff.
10:00She was hired by the White Star Line, which was looking for people to serve wealthy clients on the new
10:05luxury liner.
10:06And on April 10th, after an interview, Violet boarded the Titanic.
10:11The first days of work went as usual, but then the ship crashed into an iceberg.
10:16In the beginning, no one panicked and didn't even want to believe that the unsinkable boat could go down.
10:23But while the people on the upper deck were having these conversations, water flooded the ship's hold.
10:29Violet, along with other stewards, helped people evacuate.
10:33One of the ship's commanders ordered Violet to get into the boat first to show everyone else it was safe.
10:39She obeyed and spent several hours there until rescuers came for the survivors.
10:44But the most exciting thing in this story was that before the Titanic, Violet had already been in another shipwreck.
10:52The ship where she worked as a steward collided with another vessel at sea.
10:57All the people were saved, and Violet got a job on the Titanic a few years later.
11:03But even after the famous shipwreck, she didn't change her profession and went to the Britannic Floating Hospital.
11:10And you know what? It also sank.
11:13Violet managed to survive for the third time, but this didn't scare the girl.
11:18After all these events, she continued her work on other ships.
11:22She survived three shipwrecks and got a name for this, Miss Unsinkable.
11:28One of the bravest passengers of the Titanic was the ship's chief baker, Charles Jogan.
11:34On the night of April 14th, he woke up after the collision with the iceberg.
11:39During the few hours as the ship was sinking underwater, Charles helped the passengers.
11:44First, he ordered his bakers to supply all rescue boats with food,
11:48then helped the crew evacuate the passengers.
11:51He was one of the last people left on the ship when all rescue boats were on the water.
11:56But still, he continued to save people's lives.
12:00Charles started to throw deck chairs overboard so people could hold on to them.
12:04Then, when half of the Titanic went down, he lowered into the icy water,
12:09where he noticed a capsized rescue boat.
12:12Charles boarded it and waited a few hours until rescuers appeared.
12:16And the most incredible thing is that he was completely fine when the Carpathia arrived and found him.
12:22He had not even a scratch and wasn't at all hypothermic.
12:27Among the Titanic's surviving passengers was Margaret Brown, known as the unsinkable Molly Brown.
12:34She was visiting a friend in England with her daughter.
12:37But when Margaret found out her grandson was ill, she immediately bought a ticket to New York on board the
12:43Titanic.
12:45After colliding with the iceberg, Margaret bravely helped people evacuate until the stewards forced her to get into a boat.
12:52She continued to help other passengers until they were rescued by the Carpathia.
12:58Margaret created a survivor's committee and raised about $10,000.
13:02At that time, it was quite a lot of money.
13:05For many years, she protected and supported the Titanic's passengers, who were in poor financial condition.
13:12Margaret also helped to build the Titanic Memorial in Washington.
13:17A wealthy English businessman, J. Bruce Ismay, was on board the Titanic.
13:22And the shipwreck was not the only disaster for him.
13:26He managed to jump into the last boat, 20 minutes before Titanic was completely submerged.
13:32Thus, he saved his life, but condemned himself to eternal contempt.
13:37When he was on the mainland, the newspapers began to write about him as the main coward of the Titanic.
13:44Also, some articles accused him of sinking the ship.
13:48Ismay was a White Star Line company director that created the ship.
13:52And according to newspaper articles, the businessman asked the captain to sail faster.
13:58He wanted the ship to arrive in America ahead of schedule and receive good reviews in the press.
14:04As a result, the ship crashed into the iceberg at high speed and damaged the hull.
14:10Nobody proved the businessman's guilt.
14:12Almost all of the criticism of Bruce Ismay was concentrated in one newspaper.
14:18Its publisher had a fight with the businessman before the tragedy.
14:22So, they decided to destroy his reputation.
14:26Britain organized an independent investigation, which concluded that Ismay did nothing wrong.
14:32Yeah, he jumped into the last boat, but only after all the women and children were evacuated.
14:38However, the investigation didn't help to clear his reputation.
14:43In England and America, many friends and colleagues turned away from him.
14:47For many years, Ismay compensated the families who lost someone on the Titanic.
14:55The most famous passengers of the Titanic were an orchestra of eight musicians.
15:01In the beginning, there was no panic when the ship collided with the iceberg.
15:05Many refused to get into the boats, as it seemed to them that it was safer on the Titanic.
15:11Others were sure the breakdown on the ship would soon be repaired.
15:15Some people didn't believe the ship could sink.
15:17A minor panic began when everyone realized a catastrophe was imminent.
15:23To calm the people down a bit, the eight musicians from two ensembles started playing music.
15:29Survivors said the orchestra played until the very end.
15:33Fear for their lives and the nearness of the end didn't confuse the valiant men.
15:38Unfortunately, they didn't survive.
15:40But a memory about them was written in history forever.
15:44And their musical instruments became world-famous artifacts and very valuable items at auctions.
15:51It was June 1928 when Mr. Keller almost lost his life in a terrifying natural disaster.
15:58He was outside with his family when he noticed an umbrella-shaped cloud that seemed to be approaching them.
16:04It gave him a sense of foreboding.
16:06A tornado was probably forming there.
16:09Indeed, in no time, three huge funnel clouds were dashing their way.
16:15After rushing his family into the storm cellar, Keller decided to have another look.
16:20And what he saw both terrified and mesmerized him.
16:25The twister was directly overhead.
16:28But inside the swirling cloud, everything was eerily still.
16:32The man could feel a strong, grassy smell.
16:35He had trouble breathing.
16:36He looked up and saw a circular opening right overhead.
16:40It was around 50 to 100 feet across and around half a mile high.
16:46Keller could clearly see the walls of the rotating cloud.
16:49Constant bursts of lightning zigzagged from side to side non-stop, illuminating this horror movie scene.
16:55The man could also see many smaller tornadoes forming and breaking free.
17:00A deafening, hissing noise was overwhelming.
17:04And the next moment, the tornado skipped over Keller's house and smashed the home of his neighbors.
17:11Mr. Keller wasn't the only person to see the tornado from the inside and lived to tell the tale.
17:16But other survivors didn't end up as unscathed.
17:20It seemed to be a regular day when Chris Tuving from Dallas, Texas got to the Little Caesars in 2019.
17:27They had run out of pizzas, so he decided to wait.
17:30While it was a grave mistake, a powerful tornado hit the shopping mall where he was staying and pulled him
17:37out of the building.
17:38Chris managed to find a support column and held on for dear life.
17:42But no muscle strength could compare to the terrifying power of the tornado.
17:47Tevang was lifted into the air and thrown into a truck parked in front of the restaurant.
17:52He tried to hold on to the hood, but there was nothing to grab.
17:55In the end, he managed to hold on to the rim of the left front tire and stay there until
18:00the whole nightmare stopped.
18:02The tornado Chris survived had sustained winds of 140 miles per hour and was 13 football fields wide at the
18:11base.
18:11Eric Simmons recalled taking cover from a tornado in May 2019 by climbing into his truck.
18:18Once inside, he looked out of his right windshield and saw vines growing along the fence.
18:23They were moving around in a bizarre way that confused the man.
18:27And then it all started.
18:30Suddenly, everything Eric could see was wind and pitch black darkness.
18:35Then a section of a roof flew over him and shredded apart mid-air.
18:40The truck's back windshield shattered, showering the man with shards of glass.
18:44A tree in front of him was lifted into the air like a twig, and the fence blew over the
18:49top of the truck.
18:51Simmons could feel the back of the vehicle lifting.
18:54He could see the power lines exploding right in front of his eyes.
18:58Even though the visibility was terrible, he could still see the flashes.
19:02It all lasted around 45 seconds, but to him, an eternity seemed to have passed.
19:08When the coast grew clear, Eric got out of the car, but he could barely walk after the shock he
19:14had lived through.
19:15He couldn't speak.
19:16It was one of the most horrifying and traumatic experiences of his life.
19:21According to the man, the real reason why he was so terrified was because he had no training,
19:26no warning, and no defense against whatever was coming.
19:31Later, he found out that the tornado had almost taken his life at a speed of 86 to 110 miles
19:38per hour
19:39and was around 75 to 100 yards across.
19:44A tornado is a rotating column of air that touches the ground.
19:48Sometimes it's connected to the base of a thunderstorm.
19:51The wind speeds inside tornadoes can top hundreds of miles an hour.
19:56No wonder they have enormously devastating potential,
19:59picking up objects, unrooting trees, destroying buildings, you name it.
20:04The problem with escaping a tornado is that it's not always easy to see.
20:09The wind, however severe it is, is invisible.
20:13The first sign of an approaching tornado might be the infamous rumble
20:18resembling the noise a moving freight train produces.
20:21There are also some other sounds indicating that a tornado is coming,
20:25but the human ear can't perceive those.
20:28When you spot that classic tornado cone,
20:31it means it has already developed a condensation funnel made of water, dust, and debris.
20:37The most destructive tornadoes are born from rotating thunderstorms called supercells.
20:43Luckily, those are something meteorologists can actually notice
20:47because such storms have a well-defined appearance on radars.
20:51Experts believe that the difference in the temperature of such a storm
20:55can determine how likely a tornado is to form.
20:58And still, there's a lot we don't know about this process.
21:02For example, the question about why and where tornadoes are most likely to appear
21:07remains unanswered.
21:12The strength of tornadoes is measured with the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
21:16The rating goes from 0 to 5,
21:19considering the damage caused by a tornado and its wind speeds,
21:23where EF0 is the weakest tornado,
21:26and EF5 is a tornado I hope you will never ever come across.
21:31The EF scale rounds off at wind speeds of 318 miles per hour,
21:37with strong frame houses being lifted off foundations
21:40and carried long distances to be eventually broken into pieces.
21:45Cars fly through the air for more than 328 feet away,
21:49and steel-reinforced structures are left badly damaged.
21:54Despite this terrifying power and ferocity of tornadoes,
21:58authorities report that even the worst of them have a 99% survival rate,
22:03but it doesn't mean that you shouldn't take all possible precautions
22:06to avoid ending up inside one.
22:08Stay away from doors and windows,
22:11move to an interior room if possible,
22:13and use pillows, blankets, and mattresses
22:15to protect yourself from flying debris.
22:18If stranded outside during a tornado,
22:21crawl into a ditch and cover yourself, protecting the head.
22:25Now, there's another twister that is as scary as a tornado,
22:29but this one forms in the water.
22:32Whirlpools appear when fast-flowing water
22:34crashes into an obstacle or another current.
22:38The water starts swirling in a downward spiral,
22:41creating a vortex that can pull objects,
22:44animals, and even small boats
22:46that happen to be nearby to the bottom.
22:48One more way for a whirlpool to form
22:51is the sudden appearance of a sinkhole
22:54created by a collapsed cave, for example.
22:57This makes water flood the hollow structure
22:59and creates a whirlpool,
23:01similar to the one you see
23:02when you pull the plug out of a bath filled with water.
23:06While some whirlpools are small and brief,
23:10others can reach enormous sizes
23:12and be driven by constant currents.
23:14The most dangerous of them are maelstroms.
23:17If you get into a whirlpool like that,
23:20your chances to get back to the surface are slim.
23:23The incessant movement of the water
23:25and its pulling power can leave you disoriented
23:28and stuck without air.
23:30That's what happened to Stuart Falstone
23:33when he got trapped in a whirlpool.
23:35His first instinct was to swim out of it,
23:38but this idea proved to be hopeless.
23:40The footage filmed by the cameraman
23:42attached to his helmet later showed
23:44that the man had been underwater
23:46for almost three and a half minutes.
23:48He had probably been dragged
23:50all the way down to the riverbed.
23:52There, the pull of the twister lessened a bit
23:54and finally released its hold.
23:56The guy was lucky to get spotted face down in the water
23:59and pulled to the surface by a kayaker.
24:02The depth a whirlpool can pull you down to can vary.
24:06It depends on its power and size.
24:08Sadly, not everyone who got trapped in a whirlpool
24:11survived and got out again.
24:14In different ways in which whirlpools form
24:16means that sometimes they can appear out of the blue.
24:19You can't predict this process and get no warning.
24:23So the best way to stay safe
24:25is to wear your life jacket at all times when in the water.
24:28If you get pulled into a whirlpool,
24:31try not to move in the same direction as the water flow.
24:34Aim for the outer edge
24:35rather than the center of the twister.
24:37If you're lucky, the whirlpool might throw you back up.
24:40There have been precedents.
24:42And if you come over a whirlpool in a boat or kayak,
24:45do your best to stop the boat from filling with water.
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