1,5 (natural disasters)

"Why?  Why?"  
Those same words resonate every time there's a natural disaster.  Tornado, typhoon... volcano, blizzard, avalanche... 
Mankind calls them acts of God.  We've grown accustomed to these strange sounding names. 

Scientists gets too close to lava lake - Richard Hammond's Journey to the Centre of the Planet - BBC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egEGaBXG3Kg
3:22 - 3:32 (volcano clip)
or
 Mt. Etna in Italy (March 2013 eruption)

Scary storm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GQKb-NCR_8&NR=1&feature=fvwp
:20 - :27 (tornado clip)

Top 10 Biggest Tornadoes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaSZFup_y94
4:15 - 4:24 (tornado clip)

Big Avalanches
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0RWLxOFGLY
1:38 - 1:52 (avalanche clip, closer)

(First tease) It makes you wonder what they'd think of a dominipede.

(all 3 below as BREAKING NEWS clips)

a tsunami in the Indian Ocean (2004)... 

According to a U.S. Geological survey, this displacement of water had the equivalent energy of 23,000 Hiroshima-style atomic bombs.   

Roughly a quarter of a million dead in 14 different countries. (pinpoint map of affected areas)

TCN 9 News December 30th 2004 Tsunami Special Opener
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cqOVDh8yIg
:26 - :31 (live footage)
:49 - :59 (live footage)

or what's viewed as a more traditional earthquake
316,000 dead, 300,000 injured, over 1 million homeless.

Haiti earthquake (shocking live footage)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn9ZmForiyo
:00 - :08 (live footage)

or a hurricane that hit closer to home.  1,836 fatalities.

Fox News - Live coverage w/ Michael Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXdEzMSvPAY
1:45 - 1:50 (live footage)

Our numbers pale in comparison, bordering on irrelevant. 

The unsettling ties that bind... a path of destruction littered with a trail of bodies.  For those who experience them, tragedies like these are unforgettable.  They not only define us in the moment, they define us going forward as we pick up the pieces and move on. 

Just about everyone has had an encounter with senseless, meaningless death.  A co-worker, a friend, a spouse, a child.  It's ugly.  It's tragic.  It literally kills us to think that bad things happen to good people.  As part of the human race, everyone shares in these painful experiences.  

(BREAKING NEWS FLASH - thunder/lighting snippet).  "Death really IS a part of life."