Some worst natural disasters of human history

Since the beginning of human race, different natural disasters have affected the human beings and threatened his survival. These natural disasters include earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, hurricanes, forest fires, floods, avalanches, extreme heat, extreme cold and tornadoes. Below we shall discuss, some of the deadly modern and historic events, which have affected the human kind.

January 12, 2010 was unfortunate day for Haiti, when magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti which affected approximately 3 million people around the world. Roughly 250,000 people lost their lives and around 300,000 were injured. As a poor country, Haiti was unable to withstand the shock of impact.

On 2nd May 2008, Cyclone Nargis rushed towards Myanmar and in two days crossed the south of country and destroyed the Ayeyanwady Delta region. Around 140,000 people were killed and 53,800 gone missing. About 37 towns were affected by this cyclone. According to UN estimates, 2.4 million people were affected by this cyclone and subsequent disease outbreak. There was no weather radar network in the country that could predict the cyclones.

The Spanish Flu of 2018 was deadliest flu in history which infected around one-third of the earth’s population i.e. 500 million people worldwide. Around 20 million to 50 million people were killed, some 675,000 of them were American. It started in Europe, then United States and parts of Asia, then it spread around the world. There were no effective vaccines or drugs at that time to treat this flu. It killed more people than those killed in whole World War I. it proved the deadliest pandemic of modern history.

Irma was the 5th hurricane which hit the United States. On September 10, 2017, Hurricane Irma hit Florida and flooded coastal cities, ripped off roofs and knocked out power supply affecting 15 million people. 65% home in Florida suffered major damage. It reached at wind speed of 185 miles per hour. It caused $50 billion damage to the state.

Typhoon Haiyan arrived at Philippines on November 8, 2013 as Category 5 storm. It hit the country’s central region, Visayas Islands where 17 million people lived. It was one of the most powerful typhoons of the world. It affected more than 15 million people and killed more than 6,300 people. 4.1 million people were displaced and 1,800 got missing. It destroyed 33 million coconut trees which are major source of income of Philippines. Rice, corn and sugar production destroyed. The estimated damage of this typhoon was $5.8 billion.

The severe drought affected the East African region between July 2011 to mid of 2012. It caused severe food shortage across Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Djibouti. Around 260,000 people were killed in these regions and 13 million people were affected. About 29,000 children were died between May and July 2011.Unfortunately, there were many warning signs of this drought which were ignored by the government.

On 8th October 2005 morning, 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit the Kashmir region of Northern Pakistan, wiping out the entire villages. Around 86,000 people were killed and around 04 million were left homeless. 38,000 people were injured and around 19,000 children died due to collapse of school buildings. More than 800,000 buildings were completely destroyed.

There were also many other notable natural catastrophes. These include Hurricane Katrina, Pompeii, European heat wave, SARS, San Francisco earthquake, Mount St. Helens, Indian Ocean Tsunami,Hurricane Andrew, The Black Death and California wild fires,