On April 15, 2019, thousands of horrified Parsians and tourists looked on, many with tears in their eyes as Notre Dame was on fire. Many of us remember watching the fire as well, seeing flames shoot into the air and rapidly spread over the Gothic building’s roof, known as “The Forest” because of its long planks of 800-year-old wood.

The next day, the French President vowed to rebuild the edifice within five years. While many thought a complete restoration would take decades, five years later, the historic renovation is nearly 90% complete. 2,000 oak trees were sourced from forests around Europe for the rebuild. Some of them are up to 400 years old. They were left to dry for 12 to 19 months before the carpenters used them. The estimated cost was $760 million. As of April 15, 2024, 340,000 donors from more than 150 countries have donated around $895 million. 

Ahead of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, work by this team of carpenters, scaffolding experts, professional climbers, organ mechanics, and others continues at the cathedral. While most of the modern building methods are being employed, there are tools that were re-created on site to match those used a thousand years ago by the original builderss.

What was he thinking?!

Jesse B. Shawin was wanted in Oregon where he was facing three separate arrest warrants, including charges of stealing a car.  Police located and confronted him in Washington County as he was sitting in a construction excavator.  But instead of disembarking from the heavy-duty vehicle, Shawin took off, putting pedal to the metal to outrun the officers.

Let’s just say his efforts were futile. According to one online construction equipment source, “Most tracked excavators are limited to a top speed of four to six miles per hour, while some lumber along at a tortoise-like two or three.”

The sight of Shawin’s flight was nothing short of comical, as heavily armed police officers calmly walked behind the fleeing rig, content to pursue until he was ready to stop. (You can view it here.)

The ending was inevitable. Just a mile and a half later, Shawin finally stopped the vehicle and surrendered.

I can just imagine the officers’ words to him as they pursued from behind. “Turn off the engine and climb on down, son. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Your choice.”

Who could possibly forget the Miracle on the Hudson — the heart pounding story of 2009’s US Airways Flight 1549. Just after take off, on route from New York City's LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, North Carolina, the aircraft was struck by a flock of birds which were sucked into its engines, causing the plane to lose all power. To avoid crashing, pilots  Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles were left to literally glide the plane to a belly landing on the Hudson River just off the coastline of Midtown Manhattan. Because of their cool heads, quick thinking, and incomparable skill, not one life was lost. All were rescued before the aircraft, already filling with water, sank to the bottom of the Hudson.

And who could possibly forget that iconic scene of those 155 souls on board, who climbed out of the fuselage of that plane, into the frigid cold of a NY winter, and onto the wings of the plane to await rescue.

There was no time to consider handbags or baggage, briefcases or cell phones, or even coats and hats. All had to be left behind in the mad dash to exit before the plane would be claimed by the icy waters of the Hudson.

“My coat! My purse!” thought passenger Karin Hill as she stepped out into the frigid air. She had no choice but to leave them back at her seat ,18E, never expecting to see them again.

Yet somehow, all those personal items have been returned to their rightful owners — fully cleaned up and restored, as if they’d never been lost in the first place.

ABC News reports:

After the accident, US Airways called Global-BMS, a Fort Worth-based company that specializes in disaster recoveries. When the jet was hauled out of the Hudson and placed on a barge for inspection by accident investigators, Global official Mark Rocco was there, walking the cabin to tag and remove personal items to return them. … 

"It looked like it had been in a dirty carwash," recalls Rocco. "A lot of the overhead bins were still closed, and a lot of things were still stored under the seats. I saw a wallet on the floor and wondered why it hadn't floated out of the plane."

Everything was soaked and smelled of jet fuel. But every item the Global workers found was tagged with a unique tracking number, bagged and placed on a refrigerated truck bound for a Texas warehouse.

"Freezing puts things into suspended animation," Rocco says.

Back in Texas, Global began defrosting, cleaning and restoring everything it could — including everything inside carry-ons and suitcases — and figuring out who owned what. 

While many items couldn’t be fully restored (e.g., many of the computer hard drives, cell phones, shrunken clothing, and the like), most items were meticulously spit shined, dry cleaned, reconstructed, and refurbished to at-or-near original condition.

Finally, many months later, Maryann Bruce, an executive from Charlotte, NC, got a visit from Deborah Thompson, US Airways' director of emergency response, who personally delivered back to her possession her briefcase, purse, mink coat, and a carry-on suitcase with all its contents, including a large diamond ring given to her by her husband for their 25th wedding anniversary.

Included in the stash of returned items was even her boarding pass for seat 5D. ”I plan on framing that," she says.