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20 Devastating Natural Disasters in Modern History

Natural disasters have rocked the world for billions of years, but until humans started to track their devastation, it was hard to grasp the full scale of earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, wildfires and more. With modern surveillance and warning systems, humans can often anticipate disasters before they strike and even mitigate some of the damage, but issues like climate change, poverty and poor building construction still contribute to the deaths and displacement of millions. Here are 20 of the most devastating natural disasters in modern history:

#1. Mount Tambora eruption (1815)
#2. Galveston hurricane (1900)
#3. Mount Pelee eruption (1902)
#4. Heatwave in France (1911)
#5. Haiyuan earthquake (1920)
#6. Yangtze River floods (1931)
#7. Cyclone Bhola (1970)
#8. The Great Peruvian earthquake (1970)
#9. Tangshan earthquake (1976)
#10. Mexico City earthquake (1985)
#11. Bangladesh cyclone (1991)
#12. Ice storm in Canada (1998)
#13. Cyclone Odisha (1999)
#14. Indian Ocean tsunami (2004)
#15. Hurricane Katrina (2005)
#16. Kashmir earthquake (2005)
#17. Haiti earthquake (2010)
#18. Tōhoku earthquake (2011)
#19. Black Summer (2019-2020)
#20. Drought in Southern Africa (2023-2024)

 

#1. Mount Tambora eruption (1815)

Mount Tambora is in present-day Indonesia, and on April 5th, 1815, the volcano erupted. It reached its climax on April 10th, spewing ash, smoke and fire. For a year after the explosion, the average temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere dropped a degree, and the devastating volcanic winter led to crop failures and flooding in parts of Asia, Western Europe and most of North America. Around 70,000 people died as a direct result of the volcano, while the aftereffects could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands.

#2. Galveston hurricane (1900)

The hurricane that hit Galveston, TexasX in 1900 happened before the hurricane scale, but experts believe it was a category 4 storm. Good warning systems weren’t in effect, so when the storm hit, very few people evacuated before the bridges collapsed and trapped them on the island. While 6,000 to 8,000 people died in the city of Galveston, the whole island suffered 10,000 to 12,000 casualties. The devastation led to better systems and communication within the United States and even internationally! At the time of writing, the Galveston hurricane was still the deadliest US natural disaster!

#3. Mount Pelee eruption (1902)

On May 1, 1902, Martinique’s Mount Pelee began to erupt. The governor didn’t order an evacuation even as the situation grew more dangerous. The next day, the eruption reached its climax, and boiling ash cascaded into the city of St. Pierre at 300 miles an hour. Within minutes, the city was completely buried. Around 27,000 people died, while the crews of several ships burned to death in the pyroclastic cloud.

#4. Heatwave in France (1911)

The summer of 1911 was deadly for France. For 70 days, the people of Paris and other cities suffered in unbearable heat. According to reports, parts of the city ran out of water, while some people started sleeping outside to escape their boiling houses. More than 40,000 people died. Children are much more vulnerable to heat, so of those 40,000, 29,000 were very young. The heat wave wasn’t limited to France; the United Kingdom also experienced an exceptionally hot summer in 1911.

#5. Haiyuan earthquake (1920)

In 1920, the world’s second deadliest earthquake of the 20th century struck China’s Gansu Province. The Haiyuan earthquake was likely of 7.9-magnitude. It flattened two cities and damaged five more. Around 200,000 people were killed, while 20,000 square kilometers of land were destroyed. People were shocked; it had been 1,000 years since the last major earthquake. Landslides, cold winter temperatures, and food shortages made the event even worse.

#6. Yangtze River floods (1931)

The Yangtze River is the longest river in Asia and the third longest river in the world. In 1931, after an unusually rainy spring and lots of melting snow, the river flooded. It destroyed rice paddies and fields, and plunged the region into famine. The floods led to the deaths of around 3.7 million people and displaced as many as 40 million.

#7. Cyclone Bhola (1970)

In 1970, a devastating cyclone pummeled present-day Bangladesh on November 12th and 13th. Warnings went out, but few people got to shelter before the storm hit. Between 300,000 and 500,000 people were killed, which makes Cyclone Bhola the deadliest tropical cyclone in history. The storm hit just two weeks before Pakistan’s first democratic election. The political, social and cultural effects are described in the book The Vortex: A True Story of History’s Deadliest Storm, an Unspeakable War, and Liberation.

#8. The Great Peruvian earthquake (1970)

On May 31, 1970, a 7.9-magnitude quake rattled the coast of Peru. The earthquake was bad enough, but the resulting landslides caused even more devastation. A wall of ice fell from a mountain, burying the town of Yungay and its 25,000 residents so deeply, only 350 people survived. In Ranrichira, a nearby town, thousands more were killed. In total, experts believe around 70,000 people were killed.

#9. Tangshan earthquake (1976)

In the summer of 1976, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake hit Tangshan, a mining town about 70 miles east of Beijing, China. Most people lived in masonry homes, which weren’t reinforced, so when the quake hit, the buildings crumbled on top of sleeping families. Around 242,000 people were killed (some believe over 500,000 died), while 700,000 were injured.

#10. Mexico City earthquake (1985)

On September 19th, 1985, an 8.0 earthquake hit Mexico City, triggering rockslides, landslides and other geological effects. At least 9,500 people died, while 30,000 were injured and 100,000 became homeless. Mexico City is uniquely vulnerable to earthquakes. It sits on top of an ancient lake, and when earthquake tremors hit the sediment, it turns the bed of the lake into a “bowl of Jello.”

#11. Bangladesh cyclone (1991)

On April 29th, 1991, people of the Chittagong region woke to a severe cyclone and tidal waves up to 30 feet high. The storm raged for 3-4 hours, and by the time it was over, over 140,000 people were dead and millions had lost their homes. While there weren’t enough cyclone shelters, the death toll would have been 20% worse without the available ones.

#12. Ice storm in Canada (1998)

In January 1998, Canada endured one of its worst natural disasters. Ice and freezing rain cascaded upon the country for five grueling days. 35 people died, 945 were hurt and 600,000 were displaced. Power blinked out across the region, and at its worst, 3.5 million Quebecers, more than a million Ontarians and thousands in New Brunswick were affected for weeks. The storm ended up costing $5.4 billion. Recovery took years.

#13. Cyclone Odisha (1999)

On October 24th, cyclone surveillance picked up signs of a storm over the Gulf of Siam. Five days later, a super cyclone with 300 mph wind speeds hit Odisha, an East India state. Soon after, a massive tidal surge took out villages, buildings, and livestock. Some sources say over 50,000 people died, although the true number will never be known. The cyclone affected at least 13 million people who lost their homes and livelihoods.

#14. Indian Ocean tsunami (2004)

On Boxing Day (December 26th), 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake shook the coast of Indonesia. This triggered a massive tsunami in the Indian Ocean, leading to the deaths of 228,000 people in 12 countries. According to UNICEF, more than ⅓ of the dead and missing were children. The tsunami also caused $10 billion in damage, which affected the region for years afterward.

#15. Hurricane Katrina (2005)

In August of 2005, the United States suffered one of its worst natural disasters in history. Hurricane Katrina, a powerful storm that formed over the Bahamas, hit the southeastern US. While it first seemed like the city of New Orleans would be okay, the storm destroyed the levees, which soon covered 80% of the city with water. While thousands of people had evacuated before the storm hit, around 100,000 people had stayed behind. Of the around 1,800 people who died, most drowned. The storm also caused around $170 billion in damage.

#16. Kashmir earthquake (2005)

On October 8th, 2005, Kashmir, a northern region in India administered by Pakistan, experienced a 7.6-magnitude earthquake. The quake also affected northern Pakistan and Afghanistan, but most of the 75,000 people killed lived in Kashmir. The earthquake triggered landslides, falling rocks and other disasters that destroyed roads and highways, which made it harder for help to get through. Around four million people lost their homes, which weren’t reinforced enough to endure severe earthquakes.

#17. Haiti earthquake (2010)

In the early morning of January 12, 2010, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti. There were eight aftershocks that same day, and at least 52 more over the following two weeks. The airport, seaport, hospitals and hundreds of thousands of homes collapsed. Around 220,000 people died (Haiti’s estimates are higher), 300,000 were hurt and 1.5 million were displaced. Leaders and organizations working on recovery failed their responsibilities, leaving Haiti struggling more than a decade after the earthquake.

#18. Tōhoku earthquake (2011)

On March 11, 2011, the Japan Trench thundered with a 9.1-magnitude earthquake. This triggered a massive tsunami that killed 18,000 people, injured thousands and caused $220 billion in damage. Perhaps most devastating of all, a huge wave flooded the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima power plant, causing a nuclear meltdown. 150,000 people were forced to evacuate in what became the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. In 2024, Japan is still working on decontamination, although some experts believe it’s “impossible” to clean the melted fuel inside the reactors by the 2051 target.

#19. Black Summer (2019-2020)

Wildfires aren’t unusual in Australia, but the season in 2019-2020 was so severe, it’s now known as “Black Summer.” Hundreds of bushfires ripped across the continent, causing $7.3 billion in damage, killing or displacing billions of animals and directly killing 33 people, according to Weather.com. An analysis of the devastating season found that multiple threats (like climate change) made the country more vulnerable to fires, while conservation funding and information about what areas most needed protection wasn’t good enough.

#20. Drought in Southern Africa (2023-2024)

Temperatures in southern Africa have been rising for years. From October 2023 to March 2024, severe heat and a lack of rain affected the food security, wildfire risk and water supplies for millions of people. According to NASA’s Earth Observatory, El Nino, which affects rain during the growing season, played a big role in this long drought. El Nino ended in April, but rain doesn’t usually come until October. Recovery after this record-breaking drought won’t happen overnight.