Aberfan: The mistake that cost a village its children

I read the wikipedia article rather than the linked BBC article.<p>What struck me was the boneheaded greed of the National Coal Board. Pettily resisting things like &#x27;move the giant pile which killed all the kids, away from the village&#x27; because it would cost so much. When the costs are not all that much on government scale, even adjusting for inflation. They initially wanted to compensate the families with £50 (!!) per dead kid. Eventually they raised that to £500 and called it &quot;generous&quot;. None of the jokers in question suffered any real consequences for it.<p>Really shines a dim light on the UK government around that time.

We read about similar disasters happening today in third world countries and we think &quot;It&#x27;s all due to the corruption in those places; such things could never happen in developed places&quot;. It is really thought-provoking to think about how not very long ago they did.

I hat those layouts. Just give me a static page, maybe chop the article into separate bits and hyperlink them. But this... it&#x27;s like it was made by tv people who hate reading. I don&#x27;t know.

I was almost exactly 1 year old when the Aberfan disaster occurred so I have no direct memories.<p>But what I do remember from the subsequent few years was the look of absolute horror and fear that came over my mothers face any time it was mentioned.

&quot;To reach an appropriate sum the Charity Commission proposed asking grief-stricken parents ‘exactly how close were you to your child?’; those found not to have been close to their children would not be compensated.&quot;<p>I have no words for this...<p>Edit: My god, it just gets worse:<p>&quot;Mercifully, the proposal was never acted upon. The NCB initially offered £50 before raising it to the &quot;generous offer&quot; of £500. A more substantial sum, it was advised, would have destroyed the working class recipients not used to large amounts of money&quot;

The tech developed by <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shorthand.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shorthand.com&#x2F;</a> has a small credit at the foot of this story.<p>This kind of journalistic work makes worthwhile all the labors of internet people. Browsers, Javascript, routers, servers, security, even JPEG, come together here to retell the story of that disaster, along with good writing and photography. Let&#x27;s hope the right people see this history and learn from it

Is it just me or do the survivor counts make no sense in this article?<p>&gt; 240 pupils of the Victorian red brick Pantglas Junior School<p>&gt; The 10th and last child to be brought out alive, he was treated for head and stomach injuries.<p>&gt; A further 28 children were injured, many seriously.<p>&gt; There are thought to be about 20 or so of the surviving children left in Aberfan.<p>&gt; They had registered the deaths of 116 children<p>So… only 10 were pulled out alive, but 20+ survived? 28 were injured, but not dead, but not pulled out alive? 124 weren&#x27;t registered as dead?

This from the article:<p><pre><code> “As if nature had realised that a tremendous mistake had been made and nature was speechless.”</code></pre>