The Best ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Disaster Episodes, Ranked
From the windstorm to the ferry crash and everything in between
Grey’s Anatomy is known for a lot of things, like steamy on-call room hook-up scenes, tense hospital drama and the best monologues ever delivered in scrubs. But there’s another thing that really makes the longest-running medical drama stand out: the Grey’s Anatomy disaster episode.
It is a running joke that Grey Sloan Memorial (formerly, Seattle Grace) is a lightning rod for disaster, and this list does nothing to overcome those accusations.
Here, we’ve ranked the major Grey’s Anatomy disaster episodes, from whoa to noooo, with the criteria that the incident at issue had to be a widescale disaster and the disaster itself had to happen on screen. That means you won’t see Denny Duquette’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) death or the trainwreck episode here, but the other iconic Grey’s episodes are in attendance and ranked for their spectacle, impact on the doctors and the drama and intrigue captured in the episode.
Here are the best Grey’s Anatomy disaster episodes, ranked. (Spoilers ahead!)
11. The fog is the tamest Grey’s Anatomy disaster episode.
Episode: “Jump Into the Fog” (Season 15, Episode 25)
Who knew that fog can be threatening? Well, it kind of can’t, which is why it’s at the bottom of this list. A thick mist descends upon Seattle in the Season 15 finale, and it causes chaos at the hospital. As a result, Jackson (Jesse Williams) goes missing for the season cliffhanger, but there are no mass fatalities or big emotional moments.
In fact, it helps Jackson and Maggie (Kelly McCreary) realize they are terrible together, so it is more of a blessing than a big disaster in end. As far as Grey’s Anatomy disaster episodes go, this is a mild one.
10. The wind storm had a little more gusto, but not much.
Episode: “Blowin’ in the Wind” (Season 15, Episode 8)
The wind storm ups the action just a pinch, which puts it just above the fog in this ranking. There are a few gruesome injuries and a lot of operating room scenes, but the epic nature of the episode is based more in personal moments.
Levi (Jake Borelli) and Nico (Alex Landi) have their first kiss in the ambulance, and DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) gives Meredith that iconic speech in the on-call room, officially shutting down any chance Link (Chris Carmack) has in the love triangle. It’s great stuff – but not exactly disaster-related. The wind is giving mid-rizz, and Grey’s can do (and usually does) better.
9. The fire is the Grey’s disaster episode that started a whole new ride.
Episode: “Ring of Fire” (Season 13, Episode 24)
This disaster episode inspired Grey’s Anatomy spinoff Station 19, so it gets an automatic bump up the list for that fact alone. It also gets extra credit for staging the disaster at the hospital, which adds extra emotional stakes.
The fire isn’t the only problem in the episode, either; it all starts because Edwards (Jerrika Hinton) is trying to save a child from an abusive racist, so there is added drama about where this pair – and the dangerous patient – are as the firefighters try to save the hospital from burning down. It isn’t just a big Grey’s disaster episode because of the spectacle of the fire, but it also weaves in personal stakes for our doctors.
8. The earthquake shook us up quite a bit.
Episode: “I Feel the Earth Move” (Season 11, Episode 15)
When an earthquake strikes Seattle, the real calamities happen outside of the hospital, but that doesn’t mean the docs aren’t dealing with some seismic cases.
The most memorable of the bunch is a little girl named Ruby (Millie Bobby Brown), who calls in about her mother’s injury at a remote cabin and has to be talked through a gnarly on-the-spot procedure to save her life. The whole thing is a nailbiter from start to finish.
7. The sink hole made us feel helpless.
Episode: “Free Falling” (Season 8, Episode 1)
It’s bad enough when the heroes of Grey Sloan find themselves having to perform emergency surgeries in the midst of an environmental catastrophe, but it’s even worse when they’re unable to physically help and have to talk a victim through a difficult procedure.
As with the earthquake, such is the case here, too, as Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) and Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) are stuck above ground after a giant sinkhole opens up. They have to literally phone it in to coach a man through an underground field amputation on his own wife. This one ranks slightly above the similarly-themed earthquake disaster episode because of the creative visuals in play here.
6. The super storm was a costly Grey’s Anatomy disaster episode.
Episode: “Perfect Storm” (Season 9, Episode 24)
A thunderstorm doesn’t sound like an exciting disaster by itself, but leave it to Grey’s to up the ante. The generator goes down in the storm, leaving the hospital in the dark and puts all of our doctors in different levels of crisis. Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) has to rally patients in the NICU, surgeries have to happen in the dark and the episode even leads to a devastating cliffhanger for Weber (James Pickens Jr.) and the death of a loved intern.
There are more emotional disasters in the top half of the list, but the super storm get us on the edge of our seats the entire episode.
5. The tunnel collapse makes the trauma team work for it.
Episodes: “Time Stops” / “You’re My Home” (Season 11 Episodes 23 and 24)
Fans have certainly seen some couples put through the wringer throughout the many seasons of Grey’s, but this two-episode disaster special was just that: special. A tunnel collapse takes place during rush hour and pins over a dozen cars beneath the rubble.
Among the victims is a pregnant woman who must endure labor and potential paralysis if she moves her head even a millimeter. Meanwhile, her fiancé is trapped in a car without any chance of being rescued on the scene – until April Kepner (Sarah Drew), in all of her newfound trauma surgery wisdom, decides to reinvent the concept of an EMS transport and has the whole car toted to the hospital for the patient’s extraction. It’s a superhero moment for sure and puts this one in top 5 territory.
4. The shooting episode deserves a trigger warning at this point.
Episode: “Death and All His Friends” (Season 6, Episode 24)
This episode should now require a neon content warning before watching. Mass shootings have a problem in America for a very long time, but this Season 6 ender aired before it felt like there was a new shooting making the news every week.
If you want to talk about the stress factor, this Grey’s Anatomy disaster episode takes the cake as a grieving patient takes his revenge on all of Seattle Grace because he believes Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) killed his wife. We almost lose McDreamy as he’s the first one shot. Meanwhile, Meredith miscarries their baby while she’s in the middle of an operation, and almost a dozen people are mortally wounded. The entire staff is traumatized before the shooter is apprehended, and it remains one of the most hard-to-watch episodes of the entire series.
3. The bomb changed the entire game for Grey’s Anatomy disaster episodes.
Episode: “As We Know It” (Season 2, Episode 17)
This episode will appear in every Grey’s Anatomy sizzle reel for the rest of time. It is one of the landmark episodes that made the hospital drama a pop-culture phenomenon.
When Kyle Chandler isn’t being called Coach Taylor thanks to his role on Friday Night Lights, he will be forever known as “the bomb guy” who sacrifices himself at the end of the episode to save Meredith and the rest of the hospital. It is technically the first disaster episode Grey’s ever did (if you don’t count the trainwreck episode, which we aren’t for this list), and it set the bar that only two other Grey’s disasters have been able to surpass.
2. The ferry crash proved Grey’s Anatomy is so much more than a steamy drama.
Episodes: “Drowning on Dry Land” / “Some Kind of Miracle” (Season 3, Episodes 16 and 17)
The ferry crash set the standard for Grey’s Anatomy disaster episodes in terms of scale. This was a massive production and brought all the Seattle Grace doctors into the fray.
Of course, it is most known for bringing the dark and twisty part of Meredith’s personality to the forefront after she is knocked into the icy Seattle water and almost drowns. The ferry crash proved that Grey’s Anatomy wasn’t just about hot doctors hooking up in between shifts but could put make events out of their episodes, and they’ve been doing it ever since.
1. The plane crash is the ultimate Grey’s Anatomy disaster episode.
Episode: “Flight” (Season 8, Episode 24)
Please gather every tissue you have in your house before watching or rewatching this episode. It is the most upsetting Grey’s Anatomy disaster episode the show has ever done. Meredith, Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), Derek, Arizona, Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) and Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh) are all stranded in the woods after their small plane crashes after they fly out for an organ transplant surgery. It is chaos from start to finish, the injuries are gruesome and harrowing. Put simply, it is one of the most heartbreaking character deaths in Grey’s history.
This is the Grey’s Anatomy disaster episode that checks every single box from spectacle to drama and intrigue, and it has the highest personal stakes for the main characters of the show. It is an quintessential example of the kind of television Grey’s Anatomy can be. It is the episode that changes Seattle Grace into Grey Sloan Memorial, and it has forever etched itself into our hearts.
Grey’s Anatomy Seasons 1-18 are now streaming on Netflix. Season 19 is now available on Hulu.