From Sir Mitchell:

"PEOPLE TAKE WARNING!
Forgive my wordiness, I'm being thorough as to make this challenge clear.
I think that it's often beneficial, if not necessary, to do a good bit of research when writing about different subjects and acquainting you with that concept is point of this exercise.
The Disaster/ Tragedy song is one of my favorite types of songs. It's a forgotten genre that has all but gone extinct, but this week, we're gonna try our hands at its resurrection. So what exactly is a Disaster/ Tragedy song? It's a song about a real disaster/ tragedy (obviously), but it's more than that. It's a way of spreading the news of the disaster/ tragedy, a way of paying homage to its victims and it's a remembrance of historical record. The Disaster/ Tragedy song takes many forms. Here are some examples:
The Murder ballad (Tom Dooley, Poor Ellen Smith, Sufjan Stevens' John Wayne Gacy ect.)
The Natural disaster (songs about hurricanes, floods, and so on)
Accidental disasters (the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Billow of Fire - about the Chicago fire, hundreds of songs about train wrecks, dozens of songs about the sinking of the Titanic, etc.)
An offshoot of this genre that I will accept is, the Miscarriages of Justice song, so long as it actually involves our justice system acting unfairly. For example, a song about a man who was executed or imprisoned for a murder who was later revealed with near certainly to be an innocent man and the victim of a wrongful conviction is an excellent choice. Bob Dylan's "Hurricane" is a good example of this. A song about a gay couple not being able to buy a wedding cake would probably not be a good choice, because as unjust as you may find that to be, no one was imprisoned or murdered over it. However, a song about a gay couple beaten to death because they were gay would be a fine choice.
A song about all the police brutality currently in the news is murky waters. Ferguson, for example, would be tricky because the actual facts of what happened are hard to ascertain. That guy that got shot and killed by a cop in South Carolina recently, however would be an excellent choice though.
But, you probably won't have to worry about tackling any of those complex stories, because I want a song a about a disaster/ tragedy the took place in your life time in the area you were living when it took place. So, unless you were on the ground watching Hindenburg or in New York at the time of the terrorist attacks, no songs about the doomed ship or 9/11.
Don't try and get too clever either. I don't want any songs about how it was a tragedy that some girl you fancied in high school didn't return your affections. Now, if the girl you fancied in high school had a sudden brain aneurism and died on the football field when she was cheering at the big Homecoming game, that would be a good 'un. Sudden and (even better still) accidental untimely death is the foundation upon which the Disaster/ Tragedy song is built. I'm not saying the someone has to die, but if no one in your song died, you probably did it wrong.
I want a true story and I want the facts, although I encourage you to sensationalize and even BEND the facts if necessary. Any style is acceptable. You can take any stand on the issue that you see fit, you can use any sort of narrative you like and use any point of view within that narrative: the villain, the victim, the oppressor, the omniscient narrator, even the disaster itself (you are the flood!).
Got it?"