9 Disasters ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Hasn’t Done Yet

Pick Us, Choose Us, Love Us!

For exclusive news and updates, subscribe to our Grey's Anatomy Newsletter:

The finale for Grey’s Anatomy Season 21 was a fiery one, jeopardizing the lives of several of our favorite Grey Sloan surgeons with what looks to be a very massive operating room explosion. We’ll have to wait until Season 22 arrives this fall to find out which, if any, of our heroes in the blast zone made it out unscathed, but we’re also thinking about what else might be ahead in the next bow.

Grey’s gas explosion was a shocker, but it was also pretty standard fare for the show, considering everything the hospital and its staff have been through over the years. In fact, the first hospital explosion happened all the way back in Season 3 with the infamous bomb-in-a-body bonanza. Among the litany of other disasters that have befallen the hospital or Seattle at large in the show are a train derailment, multiple mass shootings, a ferry boat crash, a flood, plane crashes, a sinkhole, a superstorm, a mudslide, an earthquake, a tunnel collapse, a roller coaster accident, a windstorm, a hospital fire, wildfires, a bus crash, multiple ambulance wrecks, a hacker attack, a heatwave, and, of course, a global pandemic.

At this point, you might think there aren’t any more new disasters that even could befall the team, but we’ve found a few that might become fodder for the longest-running primetime medical drama to continue its tradition of bringing big events to the small screen in Season 22.

Related

Did 'Grey's Anatomy' Just Kill Off [SPOILER] in Season 21 Finale Firebomb?

Volcano Explosion

With several active volcanos in the vicinity of Seattle — including the high-threat Mount St. Helens — it’s honestly surprising the show hasn’t brought a volcano eruption into the mix yet. Even an ash spray could do some serious harm to the region, giving the Grey Sloan gang plenty of new surgeries — particularly in the trauma unit.

EMP Attack

We’ve seen the hospital lose power before in the superstorm, but an EMP attack would be next-level. That would take out not just the hospital’s main power, but also all communications and backup power. It would be a major catastrophe, and the doctors would have to be mighty creative in how they treated the inevitable fallout — assuming they wouldn’t become patients themselves.

Cruise Ship Sinking

The ferry boat crash left the vessel still afloat, but could you imagine the carnage if one of those cruise boats taking people to see Alaska went asunder, and one of our heroes had to learn to scuba dive to help out the injured trapped inside a la The Poseidon Adventure?

Karen Neal / ©ABC / courtesy Everett Collection

Glacier Crash

Speaking of those cruises, another potential seaside disaster could be a glacier crash that impales and crushes people in the freezing water. (Yes, we hear how morbid this is getting, but bear with.)

Shark Attack

Wildlife attacks have played a major role in the show — who can forget when the trio of hikers walked away from a mad mama bear? Or when the “pet” lion got loose and mauled some people? Or when the boa constrictor decided to wrap itself around its adoring owner? Still, we haven’t seen a shark attack yet, and since Grey’s takes place on the waterfront, it’s fair game — even if it’s only happened twice in the entire state in the past two centuries.

Tsunami

Okay, okay, so tsunamis don’t pose much of a threat to greater Seattle, but that doesn’t mean the characters couldn’t be out somewhere and get caught up in one.

Nuclear Meltdown

Washington state has a nuclear power plant in Richland, which is just 200 miles from Seattle. An incident at that facility would almost certainly affect Grey Sloan.

Terrorist Attack

Apart from mass shooters and the hackers who took over the hospital, there hasn’t been a true terrorism attack brought into the mix on Grey’s either. Certainly, such a thing would be triggering for the doctors — particularly those who served in uniform and already have PTSD.

Alien Invasion

This might sound silly, but where’s the line, really? Who’s to say that a UFO incident of some kind couldn’t also impact Grey Sloan — whether it was just a bunch of alien hunters getting themselves hurt over a false sighting or an army of green men storming the hospital, that’d certainly be a surprise to audiences who’ve become inured to the disasters on the show.