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.