As soon as we come across the term ‘disaster,’ our heart drops down to our stomach. A very unfortunate occurrence, disaster involves immense damage of life and property, something that is impossible to get back. A large number of countries have witnessed this horrific tragedy in the past few decades. And these disasters aren’t as mild as you might be thinking, they’re not just another one of nature’s horrible ones, they’re WORSE.
So, here are about 15 most terrifying and gory natural disasters that mankind has ever witnessed:
15. PAKISTAN – EARTHQUAKE
Having its epicenter in the the land of Kashmir and areas near Muzaffarabad, this disaster took place in the year 2005, in October. The death toll was recorded as 75,000 with over 106,000 injured. Also because of how indisposed the buildings around the area were, it costed the US government about 5.4 billion dollars and a huge loss of property.
14. NARGIS – CYCLONE
This cyclone hit most of the the northern Indian Ocean, it hit Myanmar and completely destroyed the area of Ayeyarwady Delta and in just 2 days, wrecked its 37 townships Over 53,800 went missing and 84,500 people were killed.
13. HAITI – EARTHQUAKE
One of the most powerful earthquakes to hit the country of Haiti, it was 7.0 as it was recorded in the year 2010. It caused a loss of 200,000 lives, leaving 2 million people homeless and over 3 million people were injured and in need of medical aid. It took the United States government $195 million in order to compensate for the loss of property and loss of life.
Its epicenter being on the south west of Port-Au-Prince, it just didn’t go through one earthquake, it had 59 shocks, one after the other and created a raucous in and out of Port-Au-Prince. These earthquakes that occurred in between, ranged from 4.5-5 in magnitude.
12. CHINA – TANGSHAN EARTHQUAKE
This was by far the worst earthquake inscribed in the 20th century with a death toll of over 240,000 people and even more than 164,000 injured. This earthquake not only shook up the city of Tangshan, but also politically affected the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.
Its magnitude was 7.8 as recorded in the year 1976. This happened due to the Tangshan fault running near the city and hit very unexpected regions around the Tangshan city.
11. THE INDIAN OCEAN – EARTHQUAKE
Sumatra-Andaman earthquake as it was named, this terrible earthquake took place in the year 2004 (on the 22nd of December.) It was estimated to be 9.5 on the richter scale and killed over 200,000-300,00 people across the region of Indonesia. Although it was just 10 seconds long, it was as major as it could get.
It also wiped away most of Thailand, South India and other parts of Asia.
10. KATRINA – HURRICANE
Being the sixth largest hurricane ever chronicled in the history of disasters in the United States, this hurricane completely ruined the Gulf Coast causing a loss of $81 billion to the Us government.
9. ANDREW – HURRICANE
Recorded in the year 1942, this hurricane was also one of the costliest in terms of the loss of property it caused the US government (about 26 billion.) This was basically caused by the tropical wave that had moved towards the west coast in the region of Africa.
Its intensity was taken under control by a wind shear. However, this couldn’t last for too long and eventually broke out into a disastrous hurricane. causing about 65 fatalities.
8. TOHOKU – EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI
This was the the worst earthquake ever recorded in the history of Japan. With a depth of 24.4 km and a 9.0 magnitude on the richter scale, this disaster 15 million people all over Japan. Over 2000 people went missing and a lot more than 250,000 buildings and property damaged.
Furthermore, it caused a nuclear disaster as well and it was the 2nd largest nuclear disaster ever recorder after Chernobyl.
7. ALEPPO – EARTHQUAKE
Also known as the ‘deadliest’ earthquake in the history of the world, it destroyed the lives of 240,000 people and couldn’t be measured or counted in terms of numbers because of how old it was. However, its impact was very sever. It destroyed almost the entire city of Aleppo (now known as Halab.)
6. HAIYUAN – EARTHQUAKE
The fourth worst earthquake ever witnessed, this disaster took place in the year 1920 taking lives of over 240,000 people of Haiyun (being its epicenter) all the way till the Ningxia Province of China. It was also known as the Gansu earthquake.
5. NEW ZEALAND – EARTHQUAKE
Chronicled on February 22nd, 2011, this earthquake was as high as 6.3 on the Richter scale damaging property and loss of life and livelihood in the second largest city of New Zealand. It was also reported that 238 people went missing after this disaster, 185 killed and 164 very severely injured.
This is also known as the Christchurch earthquake as it ruined Christchurch as well as causing a huge loss of $16 billion to the property of this city.
Before that, another earthquake had hit the city on a 7.1 magnitude.
4. ANTIOCH AND SYRIA – EARTHQUAKE
Also recorded as the world’s third most horrifying disaster, this earthquake killed as many as 200,000 to 300,000 people in Syria. As it was centuries old, there is no specific date as to when this disaster took place.
3. THE BLACK DEATH
This term was used to acknowledge a plague that killed 25 to 60% of Europe’s population. The Black Death was a disease that was a part of a bacteria named Yersinia pestis and it was as contagious as possible. And it was such that spread across Europe in days, starting from Italy.
2. SPANISH INFLUENZA
One of the most horrific disasters ever recorded, this started with the year 1918 (march) and spread across Asia in no time. This was a flu that is a part of something called an influenza virus that was contagious. It killed over 40 to a 100 million people all over Asia.
1. EAST AFRICA – DROUGHT
This heinous disaster took place in the year 2011, killing over 12.4 million people in the horn of Africa due to starvation. This caused widespread famine as it spread across its near by counties( Kenya, Somalia etc.) taking the lives of over 9.5 million people due to food crisis.
Disasters are sometimes man-made as well and they take place when the laws of nature are broken. Misusing natural water and various other resources also has a horrible result and can directly affect the lives everyone around you.
Thus, being on guard about such events is what can be done best in order to avoid, if not natural, at least man-made disasters. Natural resources are a vital part of our living and taking undue advantage of these necessities will result is a huge loss of both life and property.
Also, being careful and vigilant and spreading awareness about such disasters and how to if not prevent, but at least face these disasters, is a very significant first step!