Throughout modern history, the failure to prepare and cope with Mother
Nature has resulted in catastrophic consequences, from wrecked economies
to thousands of lives lost. Even as modern technology improves
forecasts, Nature still gets the upper hand every now and then.
Considering both human and economic costs, we present 10 of the worst
all-time disasters to strike the United States.
1. Hurricane Galveston – Sept. 8, 1900
Galveston was known at the end of the 19th Century as the “Jewel of
Texas” until the single deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history
wiped away much of what had been a booming future. The bustling island
community had been the hub of the cotton trade and Texas’ largest city.
Progress bred complacency though, which became apparent when city
officials and residents decided against building a seawall to protect
the city. When the category 4 hurricane with estimated 135 mph winds
made landfall in the early morning, buildings crumbled under the force
of 15-foot-high waves. By late afternoon, the entire island was
submerged. An estimated 8,000 people perished. Although the city was
successfully rebuilt, it never regained the prosperity that earned it a
reputation as the “New York of the south.”
2. Hurricane Katrina – Aug. 29, 2005
The Atlantic storm that began as a category 1 hurricane as it blew
across southern Florida wound up being the country’s costliest tragedy.
Katrina roared into the Louisiana coast with 125 mph sustained winds,
causing a storm surge that broke levees that shielded New Orleans from
surrounding, higher coastal waters, and leaving 80 percent of the city
under water. Katrina killed at least 1,836 people and inflicted damages
estimated at around $125 billion.
3. Dust Bowl – Early 1930′s
Prior to the early 1930′s, the Great Plains was a farmer’s paradise.
Rising demands for wheat spurred settlers to plow much of the southern
plains’ grassy soil to meet this need. The land was eventually exposed
to erosion, since grass and tree roots that had held the moist soil in
place during dry times were replaced by cash crops. A decade-long
drought transformed the loose topsoil into dust, which windstorms swept
up and blew eastward, darkening skies as far away as the Atlantic
Coast. With most of the area’s crops decimated, a third of the farmers
turned to government aid, while around half a million Americans were
left homeless.
4. Great San Francisco Fire and Earthquake – April 18, 1906
San Francisco residents were abruptly awakened one spring morning by an
earthquake that lasted no more than a minute, but set off a chain of
events that caused the city to burn for four straight days. The
estimated 7.7- to 7.9-magnitude temblor not only broke natural gas
mains, which sparked the fires, but also damaged water mains, leaving
the fire department with limited resources to battle the blaze. By the
time the fires were doused, flames had devoured more than 500 city
blocks, and 3,000 lives were lost. Of those who survived, approximately
225,000 people found themselves without a home.
5. Okeechobee Hurricane – September 16, 1928
When the evacuated residents of Lake Okeechobee learned that a
hurricane hadn’t arrived on schedule, many returned home thinking that
they had been spared. The storm, however, slammed ashore later on the
evening of September 16th with sustained 140 mph winds. Such intensity
broke a small dike at the lake’s south end, resulting in weeks of heavy
flooding that claimed at least 2,500 lives.
6. Heat Wave of 1980 – Summer of 1980
The heat wave of 1980 proved to be one of the nation’s most catastrophic
prolonged weather events. A high-pressure ridge pushed temperatures
across the central and southern United States above 90 degrees
Fahrenheit for most of the summer. Agricultural damage tallied an
estimated $48 billion due to a massive drought, and 10,000 people died
from heat and heat stress-related ailments.
7. Heat Wave of 1988 – Summer of 1988
A year-long drought that had ravaged the agricultural economy was
further exacerbated by the heat wave of 1988. Damage to the agricultural
economy surpassed $61 billion, as total rainfall along the Great Plains
region from April through June was even lower than during the Dust Bowl
years. Drought conditions seeded wildfires that raged across
Yellowstone National Park and Mount Rushmore that summer. Between 5,000
and 10,000 people succumbed to health complications stemming from the
sweltering heat.
8. Johnstown Flood – May 31, 1889
During the late 19th Century, the small industrial community of
Johnstown in Pennsylvania earned a reputation as a producer of
high-quality steel. All that progress was flushed away when the poorly
maintained South Fork dam that stood high up in the mountains, 14 miles
from the city, failed. Days of torrential downpour caused the dam to
burst, unleashing more than 20 million tons of water and debris to crash
down on the city with the force of Niagara Falls. The flood leveled
1,600 homes and killed 2,209 people.
9. Peshtigo Fire – October 8, 1871
A lesser-known fire in Wisconsin that burned on the same day as the
Great Chicago Fire of 1871 turned out to be the nation’s deadliest. The
drought-stricken city of Peshtigo was set afire when a strong windstorm
fueled the spread of a small group of prairie fires by fanning the blaze
out over a million acres of forest land. The wildfire even jumped
across the Peshtigo River, trapping both sides of the town in flames. By
the time the inferno subsided, it had scorched 12 towns and left
roughly 1,200 dead.
10. Tri-State Tornado – March 18, 1925
Over the span of three-and-a-half destructive hours, the Tri-State
Tornado became the deadliest twister to rip through the heartland. Along
its path – which included Illinois, Indiana, Missouri – the tornado
demolished more than 15,000 homes. Of the nearly 700 people killed, 613
were from Illinois. In the aftermath, forecasters started to look into
developing a tornado warning system that would have spared many lives at
the time.
Source :- http://worldtoptenthings.blogspot.in/2011/12/top-10-worst-natural-disasters-of.html
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