Let’s Talk About Natural ‘‘Disasters’’…
Quakes, cyclones and various other types of natural phenomena (often labeled as ‘‘disasters’’.) have been some of mens biggest nightmares since it’s dawn. But they’re also is an attraction for many, here i would like to generally talk about natural disasters in a chat mood;
Natural disasters often bring tragedy and devastation but one must admit that it’s very hard to not get intrigued by them, i think it’s their astonishing power that captivates us. What are some of the deadliest natural disasters in history? Which particular type of natural disaster is the most dangerous? How do they relate? Which are the hardest hit countries by them? Which future natural disasters are likely result in widespread death and destruction? These are just a few questions that i can think of right now that likely to echo in many peoples heads.
My generation, i believe, is especially have an interest on this subject matter, because even we’re just two decades in, the new millenia has bring many unprecedented events in both terms of loss of life and severity. Most notable was the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, which claims hundreds of thousands of lives across 14 different countries, though the bulk of those casualties came from 4 countries: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. The event was the single deadliest tsunami in recorded history. It was triggered by an underwater earthquake off the coast of Indonesian Island of Sumatra on the December 26th 2004. It measured on a staggering 9.1–9.3 on Richter Scale, which will make it the third largest earthquake in anywhere in the world since the seismographs began to detact them in the beginning of the 20th century. The earthquake on itself set a record for being the longest lasting ever, around 8–10 minutes… It caused ‘‘some loss of life’’ in Northern most Indonesian state of Aceh, but was dwarfed by whats followed: A few minutes after shaking lasts, the coasts of Aceh received an unrelenting swarm of towering tsunamis, which reached 10 meters high in some places. They destroy any giving man-made or natural obstacle in their path and kill more than 165.000 people, mostly in the state capital Banda Aceh. But the inital quake was so humangous, the resulting tsunamis spreads the entire Indian Ocean and since the Indian Ocean hasn’t experience a major tsunami for thousands of years there haven’t been an early warning system installed at the time, which was the main contributor of the enormously high number of fatalities. The Indian island chains of Andaman and Nicobar are also located near the epicenter, around 8.000 people presumed dead in there, but that counts for only the half of Indian casualties, a similar number of people also killed in the mainland hundreds of miles away, in total more than 18.000 people died in India. In the small island nation of Sri Lanka, which lies directly in the path of the tsunami, more than 35.000 people lost their lives. And in Thailand more than 8.000 people died, half of them being foreign tourist. The tsunami also caused much less staggering yet still significant loss of life in Somalia, Maldives, Malaysia and Myanmar. In all, around 230.000 people died in the event, one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history and the deadliest of its type. And thanks to this event, the world now knows what is a tsunami and how dangerous they can be, even though tsunamis are around for centuries, it was this event that make it a household word… Then, in March 11th 2011, came the fourth biggest earthquake in recorded history, which measured on a 9.0 on Ricther Scale, causing another very significant tsunami in the East Coast of Japan. It shouldn’t come as a suprise that ‘‘tsunami’’ is a Japanese word (meaning harbour wave.) since they experience this catastrophe more than their fair share over the course of their history. But Japan is arguably the most advanced counrty in the world when it comes to disaster mitigation. They kinda does the job for the earthquake itself but like in the case of the Indian Ocean disaster, it was the tsunami that cause most of the death and destruction: The tsunami kills more than 18,000 people and cause $300 billion of damage, that makes it the costliest natural disaster ever, surpassing that $200 billion from the former leader The Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, which also takes place in Japan. If those weren’t horrible enough, the tsunami also caused Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Disaster, biggest nuclear disaster since The Chernobly. But despite all these, i think it’s safe to say the death toll is minimal for the magnitude of the disaster, if it strikes in an another densely populated country, it’ll likely to kill many tens, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of people, as in the case of 2004 disaster… I believe no other generation has much impact from tsunamis than mine, since we witnessed 2 of the most important tsunamis of all time…
Earthquakes themselfs are on the rise in the same period, in every two years or so killer quakes kill many tens of thousands of people around the world, mostly in Asia. Most notably;
2001 Bhuj Earthquake in India which have killed around 20.000 people.
2003 Bam Earthquake in Iran which took the lives of around 26.000 people.
2005 Kashmir Earthquake in Pakistan which claim around 74.000 lives.
and The 2008 Sichuan Earthquake in China which left behind more than 87.000 dead.
Still thought, The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami killed more people than all 4 of those quakes combined. But the deadliest quake of the 21st century came in the very beginning of it’s second decade. On January 12th 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake levelled the Haitian capital of Port-au Prince, despite being relatively moderate in magnitude, the poverty and poor planning in the nation cost 160.000 lives…
Tropical cyclones are also show their ferocity. In 2005, The Atlantic Ocean has cooked up a very nasty extravaganza, the season hosts: 31 tropical storms, 14 hurricanes, 7 major hurricanes (Cat3+) and 4 Cat5’s, one of those Cat5’s was Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest natural disasters and the biggest disgrace in U.S history. Another one of those Cat5’s was Hurricane Wilma which is the strongest storm ever form in the basin. But the real killer of the 21st century, however, was Cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar’s low lying Irrawaddy Delta on May 2nd 2008 (just 10 days prior to the aforementioned Sichuan Earthquake in China.) and according to most optimistic estimates it left behind nearly 140.000 dead. In 1991 an even more powerful storm (designated as: Cyclone 02B.) is also left behind nearly 140.000 dead in the neighbouring Bangladesh. Most of the worlds deadliest tropical cyclones took place in this region, The Bay of Bangal, but they seem to get least attention… Even thought it’s not comparable to those disasters, at the near end of last century, Hurricane Mitch, a very intense Cat5, formed over The Atlantic Ocean, it will evantually become the second deadliest hurricane in the basin in recorded history. It’s deadly impact was felt in whole Central America, but mostly in Honduras, where more than 7.000 people died. In total, Mitch killed 11.000 people and left equal number of people missing, which will make the total death toll up to 22.000 or perhaps even more…
In 2003 and 2010, a very bizarre type of natural disaster, kills tens of thousands of people in Europe and Russia, these deaths were caused by heatwaves, yes if you’re a kind of person who keep saying: ‘‘I wish the weather would be warmer.’’ than you should be more careful what you wish for, in 2003 extreme temperatures led to 70.000 deaths (Particularly in France.) and many rivers to dried up across Europe. In 2010, another heatwave engulf much of Russia and sparks hundreds of wildfires, the combined effects of the extreme temperatures and the smog, unleashed by fires, that blanketed many parts of the country led to 56.000 deaths. The events are the 2 deadliest of their kind in recorded history. It looks like this particular type of disaster will be an even bigger trouble for humanity in the years and decades ahead… But its not just the heat that sets a record, even thought it’s not compareable in torms of human casualties, in 2008, a severe blizzard accompained with a bitter cold snap, kills nearly 1,000 people and hundreds of thousands of livestock in Afghanistan (YES Afghanistan), which will become the 3rd deadliest blizzard in modern history…
We also received the news about increasing amount of rainfall which resulted in fatal floods and landslides in many parts of the world every year. The other weather extremes like tornadoes are also exarcerbating, in 2011, U.S experinces a super outbreak, in the month of april, nearly 340 people killed by tornadoes. But in may of that year came the single deadliest tornado in U.S more than a half century. On May 22nd a monstrous tornado touched down in Joplin, Missouri and left behind 160 dead…
Nature throwed pretty much anything in its arsenal, we even had a global pandemic called swine flu in 2009, however, one type of natural disaster haven’t show it’s worst yet: Volcanic eruptions, neither we had an event that resulted in massive loss of life like 1985’s Armero Tragedy in Colombia, nor we had a globally impacting very big event like Pinatubo Eruption in 1991 in The Philippines. Something big might be imminent, we should be vigilant…