Floods have caused the greatest loss of life
Human beings live in constant danger on this planet, despite the seeming security of modern technological conveniences. Every year, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and fires around the globe take thousands of lives and cause millions of dollars of property damage. Every so often, though, there is a natural disaster that is truly spectacular in scope. These disasters, like the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the Haiti Earthquake of 2010, will remain etched in the memories of survivors for generations.
Floods
The three worst natural disasters in the last 1,000 years have all been floods, and they have all taken place in China. The Huang He River flood in 1931 is the worst natural disaster in living memory. It killed anywhere from 850,000 to 4,000,000 people. The same river flooded almost 50 years earlier, in 1887, and killed as many as 2,000,000 people. An even worse disaster occurred in China in 1337 when the Yellow River flooded, killing an estimated 7,000,000 people. No disaster of this magnitude had occurred since the Euphrates River overflowed in 5200 B.C. to 5400 B.C., submerging 40,000 square miles and causing what Biblical scholars may have interpreted as the "Great Flood" of Noah.
Earthquakes
China has also been the site of three of the five deadliest earthquakes on record. A tremblor measuring around 8.0 on the Richter scale killed 830,000 in Shaanxi Province in 1556. In more recent times, almost 250,000 were killed in Tangshan by a 7.5 quake in 1976. Other deadly earthquakes in Syria and Iran killed over 200,000 people in 1138 and 1856 respectively. In 2010, an earthquake in Haiti killed an estimated 100,000 people and rendered perhaps a million more homeless. By comparison, the "Great Earthquake" of 1906 that struck San Francisco is estimated to have caused 3,000 deaths and to have rendered up to 300,000 people homeless.
Tropical Cyclones
The fourth deadliest natural disaster in the last 500 years was a tropical cyclone that struck the Ganges Delta in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, in 1970. Between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people were killed. Other tropical cyclones in the region that have caused a comparable number of deaths occurred in the 1800's in India and Vietnam. Hurricane Katrina, which struck Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005, caused 1,836 deaths; but the $100 million in property damage it caused make Katrina the costliest tropical cyclone in history. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 killed 6,000 to 12,000 people, making it the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
Tsunamis
The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami is the deadliest tsunami on record. It was caused by a massive magnitude 9.3 earthquake that shifted the North Pole by one inch and killed an estimated 230,000 people. Other tsunamis have been more dramatic--the one in Lituya Bay, Alaska, in 1958 produced 1700-foot waves--but none have been responsible for as many deaths.
Other Disasters
Other natural disasters that have caused significant loss of life are landslides, tornadoes and volcanoes. The worst damage has been caused by volcanoes, specifically Tambora and Krakatoa in Indonesia in the 19th century. A landslide in Kahait, Tajikistan, killed 12,000 people in 1949; and tornadoes in the midwestern and southern United States have killed hundreds of people.
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