Timeline of Disasters and Tragedies
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16 worst since 1000 CE listed at end of file.
65 Million
BP The asteroid that struck Earth wiped out the
dinosaurs, about 80% of the world’s plants species and all animals
bigger than a cat. In 2002 it also was estimated to have wiped out
55-60% of the plant-eating insects. A high oxygen level may have
contributed to a worldwide firestorm.
(SFC, 2/25/02, p.A4)(NH, Jul, p.62)
3000BC-2800BC The Burckle Crater, an undersea
crater, formed during this period by a very large scale comet or
meteorite impact event. It is located to the east of Madagascar and
west of Western Australia in the southern Indian ocean and is
estimated to be about 30 km (18 mi) in diameter. In 2006 the
Holocene Impact Working Group believed that it was created when a
comet impacted in the ocean, and that enormous megatsunamis created
the dune formations which later allowed the crater to be
pin-pointed. As not only the Bible, but other ancient writings from
various cultures make reference to a 'great flood', it is
hypothesized that these legends are associated with this event.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burckle_Crater)
365CE Jul 21, An earthquake
leveled the Egyptian Port of Alexandria and some 50,000 died.
(MC, 7/21/02)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.18)
526CE May 29, Antioch, Turkey,
was struck by an earthquake and about 250,000 died. [see May 20]
(AM, 11/00, p.69)(SC, 5/29/02)
1190 Mar 17, Crusaders
completed the massacre of Jews of York, England.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1201 Jul 5, An earthquake in
Syria and upper Egypt killed some 1.1 million people.
(www.geohaz.org/member/news/signif.htm)
1219 Jan 16, Floods followed a
storm in Northern Netherlands and thousands were killed.
(MC, 1/16/02)
1287 Dec 14, The Zuider Zee
seawall collapsed with the loss of 50,000 lives.
(MC, 12/14/01)
1456 Dec 5, Earthquake struck
Naples and 35,000 died.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1531 Jan 26, Lisbon was hit by
an earthquake and some about 30,000 died.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1556 Feb 2, The worst
earthquake in history devastated China’s Shanxi Province, killing
830,000 people.
(PCh, 1992,
p.190)(www.kepu.ac.cn/english/quake/ruins/rns03.html)
1570 Nov 2, A tidal wave in the
North Sea destroyed the sea walls from Holland to Jutland. Over a
thousand people are killed.
(HN, 11/2/98)
1607 Jan 30, A sudden flood
around the Bristol Channel in southwest Britain killed at least
2,000 people. It was the worst natural disaster ever recorded in
Britain.
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.101)
1626 Jul 30, An earthquake hit
Naples and some 10,000 died.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1630 Nov 30, 16,000 inhabitants
of Venice died this month of plague.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1648 Jul 22, Some 10,000 Jews
of Polannoe were murdered in a massacre led by Cossack Bogdan
Chmielnicki (55).
(PC, 1992, p.241)(MC, 7/22/02)
1669 Mar 11, Mount Etna in
Sicily erupted killing 15,000. [see Mar 25]
(MC, 3/12/02)
1669 Mar 25, Mount Etna,
Sicily, erupted and destroyed Nicolosi, killing 20,000. [see Mar 11]
(MC, 3/25/02)
1703 Nov 26-27, Heavy storms
hit England and 1000s were killed. Bristol, England, was damaged by
the hurricane. The Royal Navy lost 15 warships.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1703 Dec 30, Tokyo was hit by
Earthquake and some 37,000 people died.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1709 Jan 5, Sudden extreme cold
killed 1000s of Europeans.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1737 Sep 19, In India’s Bay of
Bengal a cyclone destroyed some 20,000 ships. It was estimated that
more than 300,000 people died in the densely populated area called
the Sundarbans. Later research indicated the population of Calcutta
at the time to be around 20,000. An estimate of the number of deaths
was revised down to about 3,000.
(http://cires.colorado.edu/~bilham/gif_images/1737Calcutta.pdf)
1746 Oct 28, The Peruvian
cities of Lima and Callao were demolished by an earthquake. 18,000
died.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1755 Nov 1, An 8.7 earthquake
hit Lisbon, Portugal, and killed some 70,000 people. Heavy damage
resulted from ensuing fires and tsunami flooding in Morocco and
nearly a quarter of a million people were killed.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, p.T7)(HN,
11/1/98)(http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqsmosde.html)
1769 Aug 18, Gunpowder in
Brescia, Italy, church exploded and some 3,000 were killed.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1772 Aug 11, An explosive
eruption blew 4,000 feet off Papandayan, Java, and 3,000 people were
killed.
(MC, 8/11/02)
1775 Mar 19, In Italy 4 people
were buried by avalanche for 37 days and 3 survived. [not clear if
this was the date of the avalanche or the recovery date.]
(MC, 3/19/02)
1789 Dec, In India’s city of
Coringa 3 tidal waves caused by a cyclone destroyed the harbor city
at the mouth of the Ganges river. Most ships were sunk and some
20,000 people drowned.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1797 Feb 4, Earthquake in
Quito, Ecuador, killed 41,000.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1800 Mar 17, English warship
Queen Charlotte caught fire and 700 people died.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1804 Mar 29, Thousands of
whites were massacred in Haiti.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1805 Jul 26, Naples and
Calabria were struck by an earthquake and some 26,000 died.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1810 Dec 22, British frigate
Minotaur sank killing 480.
(MC, 12/22/01)
1812 Mar 26, Earthquake
destroyed 90% of Caracas; about 20,000 died.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1815 Apr 5, Mount Tambora on
Sumbawa Island, Indonesia, in the Java Sea erupted. One-third of the
13,000 foot mountain was blasted into the air. Some 50,000 islanders
were killed and the whole planet was shrouded in a debris of
sulfuric droplets.
(NOHY, 3/90,
p.41)(www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9071099)
1835 Feb 20, Concepcion, Chile,
was destroyed by earthquake and some 5,000 died.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1837 Jan 22, An earthquake in
southern Syria killed thousands.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1837 May 9, "Sherrod" burned in
Mississippi River below Natchez, Miss., and 175 died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1839 Nov, In India’s city
Coringa a gigantic 40-foot tidal wave caused by an enormous cyclone
wiped out the harbor city that was never entirely rebuilt; 20,000
vessels in the bay were destroyed and some 300,000 people died.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1840 May 7, A tornado struck
Natchez, Miss., and killed 317.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1841 Sep 9, The Great Lakes
steamer "Erie" sank off Silver Creek, NY., and 300 people died.
(MC, 9/9/01)
1847 Nov 21, Steamer "Phoenix"
was lost on Lake Michigan. 200 people were killed.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1850 Mar 29, Ireland's SS Royal
Adelaide sank in storm and 200 people died.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1850 Sep 22, An earthquake in
Sichuan, China, killed some 300,000 people.
(www.geohaz.org/member/news/signif.htm)
1852 Aug 20, The steamer
"Atlantic" collided on Lake Erie with the fishing boat Ogdensburg,
and sank. An estimated 150-250 people were drowned.
(MC, 8/20/02)(Internet)
1853 May 6, The 1st major US
rail disaster killed 46 at Norwalk, Connecticut.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1854 Jan 5, The steamship San
Francisco wrecked and 300 died.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1854 Mar 1, The SS City of
Glasgow left Liverpool harbor and was never seen again.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1854 Apr 15, The immigrant
steamer ship "Powchattan" (Powhattan) struck Brigantine Shoals and
sank off Long Beach, NY. Over 300 people died.
(www.maritimeheritage.org/PassLists/js051854.html)
1854 Sep 27, The first great
disaster involving an ocean liner in the Atlantic occurred when the
steamship Arctic sank off the coast of Newfoundland with 300 people
aboard. It had collided in heavy fog with the French ship Vesta.
(AP, 9/27/97)(Arch, 7/02, p.7)(Arch, 9/02, p.6)
1854 Nov 13, The "New Era" ship
sank off New Jersey coast. The New Era, an emigrant ship of 1328
tons, was recently built in Bath, Maine, and this was her first
voyage. She sailed on September 28 and was nearly two months on the
way. There were 425 on board, nearly all German. 40 were lost on the
trip from cholera. There were 385 passengers and crew when the ship
struck. 163 were saved. The cargo consisted of 500 tons of chalk,
dry goods and hardware. The ship was insured for $60,000 in
Philadelphia, $60,000 in Boston, $25,000 in Bath and $6,000 in New
York.
(http://ursula.foster.cc/page20.html)
1855 Jan 9, The clipper ship
Guiding Star disappeared in Atlantic and 480 died.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1856 Apr 3, Gunpowder in church
exploded killing 4,000 in Rhodes.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1857 Mar 21, An earthquake hit
Tokyo and about 107,000 died.
(MC, 3/21/02)
1857 Sep 12, A wooden-hulled
steamship, the SS Central America under Capt. William L. Herndon,
sank off the coast of Georgia. The ship carried 21 tons of gold from
California to New York. The brig Marine and the Norwegian bark Ellen
rescued some 141 people. 425 (428) of 528 (578) passengers were
drowned. The survivors included Ansel Ives Easton (d.1868) and his
new wife Adeline. The wreck was in 8,000 feet of water and in
1987-1988 salvage operations were begun by Tommy Thompson. He hauled
in $500 million worth of gold bars, coins and nuggets. After a court
battle he was awarded 92% of the gold. The story is told in the 1998
book "Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue sea" by Gary Kinder. The loss of
the gold sparked "The Panic of 1857." The SS Central America sank
off Cape Romain, SC.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.W3)(WSJ, 6/19/98, p.W9)(SFEC,
6/28/98, BR p.3)(WSJ, 12/3/99, p.W16)(WSJ, 1/28/00, p.B1)(ON, 7/01,
p.2)(MC, 9/12/01)(Ind, 12/1/01, 5A)
1859 Apr 27, "Pomona" sank in
North Atlantic drowning all 400 aboard.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1863 Dec 8, A Jesuit church in
Chile caught fire and 2,500 died in a panic.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1864 Mar 18, The Dale Dike on
Humber River, England, crumbled drowning some 240.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1864 Oct 5, Calcutta, India,
was denuded by a cyclone and some 70,000 people were killed.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1865 Apr 27, The steamer
Sultana caught fire and burned after one of its boilers exploded on
the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tenn., killing more than 1,400
paroled Union prisoners on their way home. One account reported
1,547 people dead. At least 1,238 of the 2,031 passengers, mostly
former Union POWs, were killed.
(AP, 4/27/97)(SFC, 3/13/99, p.E6)(HN,
4/27/99)(MC, 4/27/02)
1865 Jul 30, The worst US
steamship disaster occurred. The Brother Jonathon, a paddle wheel
steamer, sank off the coast of Northern California near Crescent
City. 225 people died after the ship hit a rock near Crescent City.
There were 19 survivors. The 220-foot, side-wheeled steamer was on
route to Puget Sound and reportedly carried as much as $2 million in
gold. In the 1990s Deep Sea Research found and salvaged 1,207 gold
coins from the ship. California received 20% of the treasure and the
rest was put up for auction in 1999.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Jonathan_%28steamer%29)(SFC,
7/18/96, p.A18)(SFC, 6/10/97, p.A4)(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A6)(SFC,
5/28/99, p.D7)(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A27)
1866 Jan 11, Steamship London
sank in storm off Land's End England and 220 people died.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1866 Mar 19, The immigrant ship
Monarch of the Seas sank in Liverpool; 738 died.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1869 Sep 6, 110 miners, a
number of them young boys, were killed in coal mine disaster which
occurred early in the morning in Avondale, Pennsylvania, when a fire
broke out in a mineshaft, cutting off the miners' escape route and
their only source of air.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1869 A fire at Yellow Jacket
Mine near Virginia City, Nevada, killed 45 people.
(SFEC, 6/25/00, p.T7)
1870 Jun 5, A fire in
Constantinople killed some 900 people.
(MC, 6/5/02)
1870 Oct 19, The British SS
Cambria left for the North Sea coast. 196 were killed.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1871 Aug 26, The Boston Revere
Railroad Depot collision left 32 people dead on a single track
railroad with no telegraph communications.
(THC, 12/2/97)
1871 Oct 8, Around 9 p.m. on
Sunday a fire broke out in or near Patrick and Catherine O'Leary's
barn in the crowded southwestern section of Chicago. The fire may or
may not have been started by the O'Learys' cow kicking over a
lantern. Fanned by high winds, the fire burned out of control in the
tinder-dry city for more than 24 hours, until rain on Tuesday
morning finally extinguished the flames. Three and a half square
miles were leveled wiping out one-third of the city. The business
district, the courthouse and the central water pumping station,
burned to the ground. Thousands of Chicagoans fled the flames over
the Randolph Street Bridge. Approximately 250 people were killed in
the fire; 98,500 people were left homeless; 17,450 buildings were
destroyed. The original Emancipation Proclamation was destroyed. Yet
in spite of the devastation, the city was so quickly rebuilt that by
1875, few traces of the fire remained. Evidence suggests it was not
Mrs. O'Leary's cow that started the blaze. Many people still
believe that Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over a lantern which started
the fire. The Chicago City Council once passed a resolution
exonerating the cow and apologizing to the O'Leary family.
(HNPD, 10/8/98)(HN, 10/8/98)(MC, 10/8/01)
1871 Oct 8-14, In Peshtigo,
Wisc., some 1,500 people were killed in the nation’s worst forest
fire, which burned across six counties and into Michigan.
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)(WSJ, 8/4/04, p.B1)(SSFC,
9/4/05, p.A7)
1872 At a Memphis warehouse, a
cask of molasses burst open on a loading dock and a wall of goo
eight feet tall slowly surged downhill toward the Mississippi River.
It caught a dozen slow-moving pedestrians unawares.
(HFA, ‘96, p.71)
1872-1874 More than 4 million buffalo were killed
by white hunters.
(HNPD, 8/21/98)
1873 Apr 1, The British White
Star steamship Atlantic, enroute to NYC from Liverpool with 811
passengers under Capt. James Agnew Williams (33), sank off Nova
Scotia killing 565 people, mostly women and children. A court of
inquiry suspended Williams for 2 years.
(ON, 4/03, p.7)
1875 May 7, German SS Schiller
sank near Scilly Islands and 312 were killed.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1875 Nov 4, "Pacific" collided
with "Orpheus" off Cape Flattery, Wash., and 236 people died.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1876 Oct 31, In India’s Megna
River Delta a tidal wave caused by a cyclone flooded the river delta
and the city of Backergunge. Some areas became covered with 40 feet
of water. 100,000 people drowned and another 100,000 were reported
to have perished from subsequent diseases caused by polluted water.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1876 Dec 5, In NYC a fire in
the Brooklyn Theater killed over 300 people. The fire left 295
people trampled or burned to death.
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)(MC, 12/5/01)
1876 Dec 29, In the Ashtabula
train disaster a Pacific Express, carrying some 159 passengers and
crew, was traveling over a bridge near Ashtabula, Ohio. Only the
first engine of the train made it to the other side at 7:28 p.m. as
the bridge began to collapse. The rest of the train broke away and
plummeted to the bottom of the ravine below. Approximately 92 men,
women and children were killed. The bridge was owned by the Lake
Shore and Michigan railroad, and was the joint creation of Charles
Collins, Engineer, and Amasa Stone, Chief Architect and Designer.
After testifying before an investigative jury, Charles Collins
quietly went home and shot himself in the head. He was also buried
in the Chestnut Grove Cemetery, several feet from the mass grave.
Amasa Stone (1818-1883) committed suicide approximately 7 years
later. Stone was held partly responsible for the disaster by
the same investigative jury before which Collins had testified, and
was publicly scorned for many years.
(http://deadohio.com/AshTrain.htm)
1877-1879 India experienced a devastating famine
that left 6-12 million people dead.
(http://sharpgary.org/1864-1895.html)(Econ,
1/29/05, p.74)
1881 Mar 23, Gas lamp set fire
to Nice, France, opera house and 70 died.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1881 Apr 11, River ferry
"Princess Victoria" sank in Thames River, Ontario, and 180 died.
[see May 24]
(MC, 4/11/02)
1881 May 24, Some 200 people
died when the Canadian ferry Princess Victoria sank near London,
Ontario. [see Apr 11]
(AP, 5/24/97)
1881 Aug 27, A hurricane hit
Florida and the Carolinas; about 700 died.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1881 Dec 8, Vienna's Ring
Theater was destroyed by fire and 640-850 people were killed.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1881-1919 Some 59 laborers, mostly Chinese
immigrants, were killed in explosions at the California Powder Works
in Hercules. They were paid 12.5 cents per hour.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.4)
1882 Jun 6, Cyclone in Arabian
Sea (Bombay India) drowned 100,000.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1883 Jan 13, Fire in circus
Ferroni in Berditschoft, Poland, killed 430.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1883 Jul 3, SS Daphne sank on
Clyde River in Scotland and 195 died.
(MC, 7/3/02)
1883 Jul 28, Shocks, triggered
by the volcano Epomeo (Isle of Ischia, Italy), destroyed 1,200
houses at Casamicciola killing 2,000.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1883 Aug 26, The island volcano
Krakatoa in Indonesia began erupting with increasingly large
explosions and killed some 36,000 people, both on the island itself
and from the resulting 131-foot tidal waves that obliterated 163
villages on the shores of nearby Java and Sumatra. A book by Ian
Thornton: "Krakatau: The Destruction and Reassembly of an Island
Ecosystem" was published in 1996. [see Aug 27] The history of
hundreds of volcanoes is at a Volcano World Web page:
(www.volcano.und.nodak.edu/vw.html)
(AP, 8/26/97)(Nat. Hist, 3/96, p.6)(HN, 8/26/02)
1883 Aug 27, The island volcano
Krakatoa erupted; the resulting tidal waves in Indonesia's Sunda
Strait claimed some 36,417 lives in Java and Sumatra. In 2003 Simon
Winchester authored Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: Aug 27,
1883." [see Aug 26]
(AP, 8/27/97)(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.M2)
1884 Feb 19, A series of
tornadoes left an estimated 800 people dead in 7 US states (Miss,
Ala, NC, SC, Tenn., Ky & In).
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)(MC, 2/19/02)
1887 May 25, Gas lamp at Paris
Opera caught fire and 200 died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1887 China’s Huang Ho (Huang
He, Yellow River) flooded and killed about 900,000 people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_toll)
1888 Mar 11-14, The famous
"Blizzard of ‘88" struck the northeastern United States, resulting
in some 400 deaths. New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington
were cut off for days.
(AP, 3/11/98)(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)(SSFC, 9/4/05,
p.A7)
1888 Apr 20, 246 people were
reported killed by hail in Moradabad, India.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1889 May 31, A damn across a
tributary of the Little Conemaugh River collapsed under pressure
from the rain-swollen Lake Conemaugh. Water slammed into Johnstown,
Pa., 55 miles southeast of Pittsburgh and killed 2,209 people in a
flood and related fire.
(HFA, '96, p.30)(AHD, p.706)(SFC, 3/24/97, p.C2)
1889 May 31, Johnstown,
Pennsylvania was destroyed by a massive flood. The South Fork Dam
gave way, sending a wall of water rushing downstream toward
Johnstown, Pa. Torrential rains had weakened the poorly constructed
dam, located 14 miles upstream from the city. By the afternoon of
May 31, after desperate efforts to shore up the earthen dam had
failed, it broke and unleashed a 40-foot-high wave of water and
debris into Johnstown with the force of Niagara Falls. Buildings and
trees, along with animals and people--both dead and alive--piled up
against the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's Stone Bridge. The
mountain of debris then caught fire, trapping hundreds. More than
2,000 people lost their lives in the devastating Johnstown Flood.
The South Fork Dam had been constructed to create Lake Conemaugh, a
playground for the wealthy members of the South Fork Fishing and
Hunting Club.
(AP, 5/31/97)(HN, 5/31/98)
1892 Jan 8, Coal mine explosion
killed 100 in McAlister, Okla.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1893 The Russalka, a 19th
century ironclad, Russian vessel sank in the Baltic Sea with 177
sailors aboard. In 2003 it was discovered off the Finnish coast.
(AP, 7/26/03)
1896 Jun 15, The Meiji Sanriku
tsunami struck Japan and caused some 27,000 deaths.
(CW, Spring ‘99,
p.28)(http://eklektikos.org/Science.html)
1898 Nov 26, The SS Portland, a
280-foot side-wheeler, left Boston for Cape Cod. A major storm arose
that killed over 400 people in the next 36 hours [see Nov 27].
(AH, 6/02,
p.53)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Gale)
1898 Nov 27, The SS Portland,
under Capt. Hollis H. Blanchard, sank overnight in the Portland Gale
off New England and all 192 people aboard were killed. In 2002 John
Rousmaniere authored “After the Storm: True Stories of Disaster and
Recovery at Sea.”
(AH, 6/02,
p.55)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Gale)
1900 Sep 8, Some 6,000-8,000
people were killed in Galveston by flying debris, collapsing
buildings and drowning. The storm let up around midnight, leaving in
its wake $30 million in damage and thousands of bodies. Many of the
dead had to be hastily dumped in the ocean for fear of spreading
disease. Bishop's Palace in Galveston, Texas, remained standing amid
piles of rubble after the island city suffered the greatest natural
disaster in U.S. history. By nightfall, winds reached 125 mph and
the city was under 15 feet of water. The storm battered Galveston
for 18 hours. In 1999 Erik Larson published "Isaac's Storm."
(AP, 9/8/97)(HNPD, 9/8/98)(SFC, 11/30/98,
p.A2)(WSJ, 9/3/99, p.W8)
1901 Feb 22, The steamer Rio de
Janeiro piled up on rocks at Fort Point at the bay entrance of San
Francisco and some 130 people died. 80 people were rescued, mostly
by Italian fishing boats and many of the dead were Chinese
immigrants. The ship was being guided by bar pilot Frederick
W. Jordan when it hit submerged rock near Lime Point and 128 of 210
passengers drowned in 300 feet of water.
(PacDis, Fall/’96, p.14)(SFEC, 2/23/96, z-1
p.5)(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.W2)(SFC, 2/21/01, p.A17)
1902 May 6, British SS Camorta
sank off Rangoon and 739 died.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1902 On the French Island of
Martinique in the east W. Indies, the Mt. Pelee volcano blew its top
and wiped out the town of St. Pierre. A pyroclastic flow
killed 29-40 thousand people.
(Hem., 12/96, p.30)(SFC, 8/13/01, p.A4)(SFC,
1/19/02, p.A14)
1902 The Soufriere volcano
erupted on St. Vincent and 1,680 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A14)
1903 Dec 30, The Iraquois
Theater Fire of Chicago killed 602 people. Matinee patrons panicked
despite efforts by comedian Eddie Foy (47) to calm the crowd.
(HFA, '96, p.70)(AP, 12/30/97)(PCh, 1992, p.652)
1894 Sep 1-2, Forest fires
ravaged over 160,000 acres and destroyed Hinckley, Minnesota. About
600 people died.
(MC, 9/2/01)(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)
1896 May 15, A tornado killed
78 in Texas.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1896 May 27, 255 people were
killed when a tornado struck St. Louis, Mo., and East St. Louis,
Ill.
(AP, 5/27/97)
1904 Jun 15, Some 1,021 people
died when fire erupted aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New
York City’s East River.
(AP, 6/15/97)(www.newyorkhistory.info)
1905 Feb 8, A cyclone hit
Tahiti and adjacent islands killing some 10,000 people.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1906 Mar 10, A coal dust
explosion killed 1,060 at Courrieres, France.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1907 Feb 11, The passenger ship
Larchmont was steaming through a winter storm in heavy seas, 4 miles
southwest of Watch Hill, Rhode Island when she was rammed by the
coal carrying schooner Harry P. Knowles, which had drifted off
course in the blizzard. The Larchmont sank in 10 minutes and only 19
men including the captain, George McVey survived the ordeal.
(http://rhodeisland-philatelic.com/rhodeisland/postcard120.htm)
1907 Feb 12, Bodies continued
to wash ashore from the steamer Larchmont, which had collided the
previous with a schooner off New England's Block Island. The
vessel's quartermaster, James E. Staples, claimed a loss of 332.
(AP, 2/12/98)
1907 Dec 6, Worst mining
disaster in American history took place in West Virginia's Marion
County. An explosion at a mine owned by the Fairmont Coal Company in
Monongah killed 361 coal miners.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1907 Dec 19, A gas explosion
killed 239 workers in a coal mine in Jacobs Creek, Pa.
(AP, 12/19/97)(MC, 12/19/01)
1907 A great cantilever bridge
collapsed in Quebec killing 75 workers.
(MT, Summer/04, p.7)
1908 Mar 8, Collingwood
Elementary in Cleveland burned. 173 kids and 2 teachers were killed.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1908 Apr 12, Fire left 17,000
homeless in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1908 Dec 28, Some
70,000-100,000 people died in the Messina earthquake in Sicily. The
government hired a number of steamships, including the Florida, to
ship survivors to America.
(WUD, 1994, p.899)(WSJ, 2/8/99,
p.A21)(http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqsmosde.html)
1909 Jul 26, The SS Waratah
left Durban, South Africa, with 211 passengers and crew. The
steamship, enroute from Melbourne to London, was due in Cape Town 3
days later, but never arrived.
(Econ, 9/19/09, p.94)
1909 Nov 13, In Pennsylvania
the Cherry Mine disaster killed 259 men and boys. In 2002 Karen
Tintori authored “Trapped: The 1909 Cherry Mine Disaster.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1909_Cherry_Mine_disaster)(AH, 2/03,
p.61)
1910 Mar 1, The worst snow
slide in US history buried 3 passenger trains at Steven's Pass in
the Cascade Range and 118 died.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1910 Dec 21, Explosion in coal
mine in Hulton, England killed 344 mine workers.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1910 Dec 22, In Chicago, Ill.,
21 firefighters died when a wall collapsed at the Union Stock Yards
fire.
(www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-exchange-1910fire,0,4327692.story)
1911 Mar 25, The Triangle
Shirtwaist Factory Fire killed 146 immigrant workers. 13 girls
survived the fire that broke out on the top three floors of the
10-story New York’s Asch Building as the workday was ending. No one
knows what caused the fire, but it spread quickly, fueled by the
fabric scraps and sewing machine oil used in the manufacture women’s
blouses. The three avenues of escape were almost immediately clogged
with panicked workers, mostly young immigrant women. Then, to the
horror of spectators seven stories below, the desperate women began
to jump to their deaths. Appalled by the tragedy, the New York State
legislature formed a commission whose findings led to the creation
of new fire and building codes that were soon adopted in cities
throughout America.
(HNPD, 3/25/00)(SFC, 4/27/98, p.A8)(SFC, 2/24/99,
p.C4)(AP, 3/23/08)
1911 In the Philippines the
Taal volcano erupted and 1,335 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A14)
1912 Mar 5, Spanish steamer
"Principe de Asturias" sank NE of Spain and 500 died.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1912 Apr 8, Steamers collided
in Nile, drowning 200.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1912 Apr 15, At 2:20 a.m., two
hours and 40 minutes after impact, the luxury liner RMS Titanic sank
in the North Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland with the loss of about
1,522 lives. About 1,500 [1517] people died. Because there were
lifeboats for only half those on board, only 705 passengers and crew
survived the disaster. Among the survivors was J. Bruce Ismay,
president of the White Star Line, who telegraphed his New York
office, "Deeply regret advise you Titanic sank this morning after
collision with iceberg, resulting in serious loss of life. Full
particulars later." Nearly a third of the passengers died. The
ship’s band played the waltz “Songe d’Automne” as it sank. The
accident killed 1,523 [1503] people and 705 survived. By 1996 only 8
were still alive. Nearly 60% of the first-class passengers survived.
There were 214 staff members of the 685 survivors. It was later
discovered that Harland & Wolff, the ship’s builder, had used a
lower quality rivet on the ship that likely contributed to the rapid
sinking. The last night on the ship was described by Rick Archbold
and Dana McCauley in their book: “Last Dinner on the Titanic.” The
steamer Carpathia rescued 705 of the 2,358 people onboard. Prof.
Steven Biel of Brandeis Univ. wrote “A Cultural History of the
Titanic” in 1997.
(AP, 4/15/97)(SFC, 7/5/96, PM, p.16)(SFC,
9/22/96, Par p.25)(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A1)(SFC, 4/14/97, p.E8)(SFC,
4/19/97, p.A3)(SFEC,12/797, DB p.37)(SFC, 4/15/08, p.A6)
1913 Feb 9-18, The 10 Day
Tragedy of Mexico City when 3,000 died.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1913 Nov 9, Storm "Freshwater
Fury" sank 8 ore-carriers on Great Lakes.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1914 Apr 28, At Eccles,
WV, 181 died in coal mine collapse.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1914 May 29, The Canadian ship
Empress of Ireland sank while enroute to Quebec City to Liverpool
after colliding with the Norwegian coal freighter Storstad. 1,012
(1,024) of the 1,500 passengers and crew were killed. The site of
the tragedy was proclaimed a protected historic and archeological
site by Quebec in 1999.
(SFC, 4/23/99, p.D3)(SC, 5/29/02)
1915 Jan 13, An earthquake in
Avezzano, Italy, killed 29,800.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1915 Jan 18, A train derailed
on a steep incline at Colima-Guadalajara, Mexico, and some 600
people were killed.
(MC,
1/18/02)(http://www.emergency-management.net/pass_train.htm)
1915 May 7, In the 2nd year of
WWI, the British Cunard ocean liner Lusitania, on a voyage from New
York to Liverpool, sank off the coast of Ireland in only 18-21
minutes after being struck by a torpedo fired by the German U-boat
U-20. Of 1,959 [1,978] passengers and crew, 1,195 died. Of the
fatalities, 123 were Americans. Even though the Germans maintained
the liner was carrying arms purchased in America to Britain, the
sinking of a passenger ship aroused intense anger against the German
policy of unrestricted submarine warfare and hastened America's
entrance into the war. In 2002 Diana Preston authored "Lusitania: An
Epic Tragedy" and David Ramsay authored "Lusitania: Saga and Myth."
(CFA, '96, p.46)(AP, 5/7/97)(HN, 5/7/98)(HNPD,
5/7/99)(HN, 5/7/99)(WSJ, 5/8/02, p.AD9)
1915 May 22, Near Gretna,
Scotland, a passenger train collided with a troop train, killing 227
people.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)
1915 Jul 24, Excursion ship
Eastland capsized in Lake Michigan and 852 die.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1916 Aug 29, Transport ship
Hsin-Yu & cruiser Hai-Yung collided and 1000 people were killed.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1916 Dec 12, Worst train
disaster ever took place in Modane, France, 543 French Soldiers were
killed.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1917 Jan 19, Silvertown Essex's
ammunition factory exploded and 300 died.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1917 Feb 20, Ammunitions ship
exploded in Archangel harbor, Russia, and about 1,500 died.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1917 Mar 23, A 4 day series of
tornadoes killed 211 in Midwest US.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1917 Jul 9, British warship
"Vanguard" exploded at Scapa Flow killing 804.
(MC, 7/9/02)
1917 Dec 6, In Nova Scotia some
2000 people were killed and thousands wounded following an explosion
in Halifax harbor. The Imo, a Norwegian freighter ship, had collided
with the French munitions ship Mont Blanc and a fire soon caused a
massive explosion. A local court found Captain Le Medec of the Mont
Blanc and other defendants guilty of the collision. Canada’s Supreme
Court ruled that the captains of both ships were equally to blame. A
Privy Council in London ruled that Le Medec had done nothing
illegal.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.1054)(ON, 7/05, p.7)
1917 Dec 12, In Modane,
France, a troop train derailed near the entrance of Mt. Cenis tunnel
and 543 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)
1918 Apr 13, Electrical fire
killed 38 mental patients at Oklahoma State Hospital.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1918 May 18, A TNT explosion in
chemical factory in Oakdale, PA, killed 200.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1918 Jul 9, 101 people were
killed as an inbound local train collided with an outbound express
in Nashville, Tenn.
(AP, 7/9/97)
1918 Jul 12, A Japanese
battleship exploded in the Bay of Tokayama and some 500 people were
killed.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1918 Nov 1, 102 died in a NYC
BMT subway derailment at Malbone Street Brooklyn.
(MC, 11/1/01)
1919 Jan 5, In Boston an
explosion opened a tank of molasses and the cylindrical sides
toppled outward knocking down 10 nearby buildings. 2 million gallons
of molasses oozed onto the streets and killed 21 people. Another 50
were injured. [see 1872]
(SFC, 12/5/98, p.E4)
1919 May 1, The Kelut volcano
erupted and 5,110 people were killed. Mount Kelud (Indonesia)
erupted and a boiling crater lake broke through the crater wall
killing 5,000 people in 104 small villages.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A14)(MC, 5/1/02)
1920 Dec 16, In China an 8.6
earthquake in the northwestern provinces of Gansu and Shanxi caused
massive landslides and the deaths of 100,000- 200,000 people.
(SFC, 1/800,
p.A8)(www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/eq/faq/world.htm)
1921 Feb 19, The U.S. Red Cross
reported that approximately 20,000 children died yearly in auto
accidents.
(HN, 2/19/98)
1921 Mar 18, Steamer "Hong Koh"
ran aground off Swatow China killing 1,000.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1921 Sep 21, In Oppau, Germany,
an explosion at the Bradishe Aniline chemical works, a nitrate
manufacturing plant, destroyed the plant and a nearby village with
561 deaths and over 1500 persons injured.
(HSAB, 1994, p.46)(MC, 9/21/01)
1922 Feb 21, Airship Rome
exploded at Hampton Roads, Virginia, and 34 died.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1922 Aug 2, China was hit by a
typhoon and some 60,000 died.
(MC, 8/2/02)
1923 Sep 1, The Japanese cities
of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by the Great Kanto earthquake
that claimed 99,000-143,000 lives. The 7.9-8.3 quake off Tokyo's
shoreline killed some 99,300 people.
(AP,
9/1/97)(www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/eq/faq/world.htm)
1924 Mar 8, Coal mine explosion
killed 171 at Castle Gate, Utah.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1924 Jun 28, A tornado struck
Sandusky & Lorain, Ohio, killing 93.
(MC, 6/28/02)
1925 Mar 18, The great
Tri-State Tornado killed 695 people in Illinois, Indiana and
Missouri and injured some 13,000 people, and causing $17 million in
property damage. Several other destructive tornadoes in Tennessee,
Kentucky, and Indiana, as well as tornadoes in Alabama and Kansas
brought the total to at least 747 dead.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-State_Tornado)(SSFC, 5/11/03, Par
p.A11)(AP, 5/24/11)
1927 Jan 9, Fire in Laurier
Palace cinema in Montreal killed 78 children.
(MC, 1/9/02)
1927 Feb 17, The death toll
reached 24 with some 3,000 left homeless after a fierce storm hit
the Pacific Coast.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.G8)
1927 May 24, The final levee
breach of the 1927 flood occurred at McCrea, Louisiana, on the east
bank of the Atchafalaya levee. The flood along the Mississippi
killed some 500 people and displaced thousands. The levee system
broke in 145 places and caused 27,000 square miles of flooding in
Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
In 1997 the book "Rising Tide" by John M. Barry described the
catastrophe. It was also the subject of the Randy Newman song
"Louisiana 1927."
(www.rms.com/publications/1927_MississippiFlood.pdf)(WSJ, 2/6/97,
p.A12)(SFC, 11/28/03, p.C7)(SSFC, 9/4/05, p.A7)(WSJ, 11/2/05,
p.A2)(Econ, 5/21/11, p.30)
1928 Mar 12, The 3-year-old St.
Francis dam collapsed and some 450 people were killed in Santa
Paula, Ventura County, Ca.
(SFC, 9/22/01, p.A3)(PCh, 1992, p.791)
1928 May 19, "Firedamp"
exploded in a Mather, Pennsylvania, coal mine killing 195 of 273
miners.
(DTnet, 5/19/97)
1928 Aug 27, 16 people died in
NYC’s 2nd worst subway accident.
(MC, 8/27/01)
1928 Sep 12, A hurricane in
Florida killed 6,000 people.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1929 May 15, Fire in X-ray film
stock killed 125 at Crile Clinic, Cleveland.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1930 Apr 21, A fire at Ohio
State Penitentiary killed 322.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1930 Nov 25, An earthquake in
Shizouka, Japan, killed 187.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1931 Jul-Nov, The Huang He
River (Huang Ho, Yellow River) in China flooded more than 40,000 sq.
miles and more than a million people were killed.
(HFA, '96,
p.71)(http://socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/geography/huangheriver.htm)
1932 Dec 16, An 8.6 earthquake
ravaged Kansu, China. Some 70,000 were killed. [see Dec 26]
(MC, 12/16/01)
1932 Dec 26, Some 70,000 were
killed in a massive earthquake in Kansu, China. [see Dec 16]
(HN, 12/26/98)(MC, 12/26/01)
1933 Dec 24, A Paris express
train derailed and killed 160. Some 300 were injured.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1934 Sep 7-8, The luxury liner
"Morro Castle," enroute from Havana to NYC, caught fire and ran
aground at Asbury Park, NJ. 134 people were killed. [see Sep 8]
(www.jerseyboardwalk.com/morro.htm)
1934 Sep 8, 134 people lost
their lives in a fire aboard the liner Morro Castle off the New
Jersey coast. The crew of the cruise ship let a small blaze get out
of control and commandeered most of the spots in the lifeboats. Only
15 passengers survived as compared to 119 crew. 124 people died. The
event was part of a 1999 TV documentary "Escape, Because Accident
Happen" for a NOVA miniseries. [see Sep 7]
(AP, 9/8/97)(WSJ, 2/8/99, p.A21)
1935 Sep 2, A hurricane slammed
into the Florida Keys, claiming more than 400 lives. Estimates of
the dead reached 500-800. Some 260 WW I veterans were killed in the
Labor Day hurricane as well as over 160 permanent residents. In 2002
Willie Drye authored “The Storm of the Century: The Labor Day
Hurricane of 1935.”
(WSJ, 4/2/07, p.B1)(AP, 9/2/07)(AH, 2/03, p.59)
1936 Apr 5, Tupelo,
Mississippi, was virtually annihilated by a tornado and 216 died.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1936 Apr 6, A tornado killed
203 and injures 1,800 in Gainesville, Georgia.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1937 Mar 18, Some 300 people,
mostly children, were killed in a gas explosion at a school in New
London, Texas.
(AP, 3/18/08)
1937 Mar 24, A bus blew a tire,
went out of control and 18 people were killed in Salem, Illinois.
(MC, 3/24/02)
1938 Mar 2, Landslides and
floods cause over 200 deaths in Los Angeles, CA.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1939 Dec 22, 99 died in 2nd
train wreck at Friedrichshafen, Germany.
(MC, 12/22/01)
1939 Dec 22, 125 died in train
wreck at Magdeburg, Germany.
(MC, 12/22/01)
1939 In Erzincan, Turkey, an
earthquake killed 30,000 people.
(SFEC, 8/22/99, p.A17)
1940 Mar 14, A truck full of
migrant workers collided with a train outside McAllen, Texas. 27
people were killed and 15 injured.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1940 Apr 23, Some 198 people
died in a dance-hall fire in Natchez, Miss.
(AP, 4/23/97)(MC, 4/23/02)
1940 Nov 11, Blizzard struck
midwestern US killing over 100.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1941 Mar 15, A blizzard in
North Dakota killed 151.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1941 May 25, Some 5,000 drowned
in a storm at Ganges Delta region in India.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1942 Mar 26, 20 tons of
gelignite killed 21 in a stone quarry in Easton, PA.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1942 Apr 27, Tornado destroyed
Pryor, Oklahoma, killing 100 and injuring 300.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1942 Jul 28, Nazis liquidated
10,000 Jews in Minsk, Russia.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1942 Oct 16, In India a cyclone
devastated Bengal and about 40,000 lives were lost.
. (www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1942 Nov 28, 491 people died in
a fire that destroyed the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston. The
cause of the fire was never officially determined, though many
blamed a busboy who had survived the blaze.
(AP, 11/28/97)(DT net, 11/28/97)
1943 Mar 31, US errantly bombed
Rotterdam, killed 326.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1944 Jan 16, In Leon Province,
Spain, train wrecks in the Torro Tunnel killed more than 500 people.
(AP, 2/18/04)(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)
1944 Mar 2, In Salerno, Italy,
fumes from a locomotive stalled in a tunnel suffocated 521 people.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)
1944 May 21, In Hawaii the tank
landing ship LST-353 exploded at West Loch while handling
ammunition. In a short space of time, six LSTs were so damaged that
they sank. Two others were severely damaged. The total casualties
from the tragedy were 163 dead and 396 injured.
(www.nps.gov/archive/usar/scrs/scrs2z.htm)
1944 Jul 6, In Hartford, Conn.,
168 people died when fire broke out in the main tent of the Ringling
Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. In 2000 Stewart O’Nan authored
"The Circus Fire: A True Story."
(AP, 7/6/04)(SFEC, 8/20/00, BR p.3)
1944 Aug 23, A US B-24 crashed
into a school in Freckelton, England, and 76 were killed.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1945 Mar 10, Some 300 American
B-29s bombed Tokyo at night with almost 2,000 tons of incendiaries
killing 100,000.
(HN, 3/10/98)(MC, 3/10/02)
1945 May 3, German ship "Cap
Arcona" sank and 5,800 were killed.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1945 Nov 8, A riverboat sank
off Hong Kong and 1,550 were killed.
(MC, 11/8/01)
1946 Apr 1, An Aleutian Islands
earthquake triggered a Pacific-wide tsunami that killed 165 people
and caused over $26 million in damage. Tidal waves struck the
Hawaiian islands, resulting in more than 170 deaths. 91 people were
killed in Hilo.
(AP, 4/1/98)(Ind, 6/8/02, 5A)(SSFC, 8/25/02,
p.C14)
1946 Apr 25, A train crash at
Napierville, Illinois, killed 45-48. The "Exposition Flyer" was
rammed.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1946 Aug 16, A riot in Calcutta
left some 3-4,000 Moslems and Hindus dead.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1946 Nov 23, French Navy fire
in Haiphong, Vietnam, killed 6,000.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1946 Dec 7, A fire broke out at
the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, killing 119 people,
including hotel founder W. Frank Winecoff.
(AP, 12/7/04)
1947 Mar 25, A coal mine
explosion in Centralia, Ill., claimed 111 lives.
(AP, 3/25/97)
1947 Apr 9, A series of
tornadoes struck Kansas, West Texas and Oklahoma. 181 were killed
and some 1,300 injured. The Woodward tornado ranked as the deadliest
ever to hit Oklahoma.
(AP, 4/9/08)(AH, 4/07, p.55)
1947 Apr 16, The French ship
Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer, caught fire and
blew up, devastating Texas City, Texas. It was America's worst
harbor explosion. Another ship, the Highflyer, exploded the
following day. The final death toll was 576, and more than 3,000
Texas City residents were left homeless. Property damage ran
into the millions.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.E-4)(AP, 4/16/97)(HNPD, 4/17/00)
1947 Aug 18, Naval torpedo and
mine factory exploded at Cadiz, Spain, killing 300.
(MC, 8/18/02)
1948 Jul 28, In Ludwigshafen,
Germany, a vapor explosion from dimethyl ether left 209 people dead.
(HSAB, 1994, p.46)
1948 Oct 6, A 7.3 earthquake
hit Ashgebat, Turkeminstan, and killed an estimated 110,000 people.
Stalinist media at the time claimed only 35,000 deaths.
(http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqsmosde.html)
1948 Dec 3, Chinese refugee
ship "Kiangya" exploded in East China Sea killing 1,100. [see Dec 4]
(MC, 12/3/01)
1948 Dec 4, SS Kiangya hit a
mine in Whangpoo River, China. It sank and 2,750 were killed. [see
Dec 3]
(MC, 12/4/01)
1949 Apr 5, The 60 year old St.
Anthony's Hospital burned and killed 77 in Effingham, Ill.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1949 Oct 22, In Dwor, Poland,
the Danzig-Warsaw express derailed and more than 200 people were
killed.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)
1949 Nov 29, Uranium mine
explosions in East Germany killed 3,700.
(MC, 11/29/01)
1950 Feb 17, 31 people died in
a train crash in Rockville Center, NY.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1950 Aug 25, The navy hospital
ship USS Benevolence sank after it was struck by the SS Mary
Luckenbach in dense fog in the Golden Gate. 23 crew members of the
Benevolence died. San Francisco fisherman John A. Napoli
single-handedly rescued 70 people from the Benevolence. Napoli hurt
his back wand was forced to sell his crab boat. In 1961 US Congress
passed a bill to pay Napoli for his efforts.
(SSFC, 5/15/11, DB p.46)
1950 Sep 4, A heavy typhoon
struck Japan and killed about 250 people.
(MC, 9/4/01)
1950 Nov 22, 79 died in a train
crash in Richmond Hills, NY.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1951 Aug 6, Typhoon floods
killed 4,800 in Manchuria.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1951 Dec 4, Superheated gases
rolled down Mount Catarman (Philippines), killing 500.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1951 In Papua New Guinea the
Lamington volcano erupted and 2,942 people were killed.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A14)
1952 Apr 26, US minesweeper
"Hobson" rammed the aircraft carrier "Wasp," and 176 were killed.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1952 Dec 5-8, A 4-day
London smog killed 4,703 people. Oxides of sulfur and other
irritants from coal smoke were blamed. [see Dec 4]
(PCh, 1992, p.937)(MC, 12/5/01)
1953 Jan 31-1953 Feb 1, A
powerful storm breached sea dikes in the south of the Netherlands,
killing more than 1,800 people and cementing a deep resolve among
the Dutch that their ancient enemy, water, would never kill again.
307 people died in eastern England.
(SSFC, 3/25/01,
p.C3)(www.metoffice.com/education/secondary/students/flood.html)
1953 May 11, A tornado his
downtown Waco, Texas, killing 114 people with 597 injured.
(SSFC, 5/11/03, Par p.11)
1953 Jun 8, A killer tornado
hit Flint, Mich. It killed 116 people and injured more than 850 in
Ohio and Michigan.
(SSFC, 5/11/03, Par p.A11)(Hartford Courant,
6/9/63, p.23A)
1953 Jun 9, About 100 people
died when a tornado struck Worcester, Mass. The tornado from the
Midwest roared into Massachusetts. By the time it left, 94 people
were dead, and more than $58 million in property damage occurred. It
was the worst tornado in New England history.
(AP, 6/9/97)(http://tinyurl.com/yg8dhcd)
1953 Dec 24, 2 speeding express
trains crashed head-on killing 103 in Czechoslovakia.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1954 Jan 12, Austria's worst
avalanche killed 200. 9hrs later a 2nd one killed 115.
(MC, 1/12/02)
1954 Oct 15, Hurricane Hazel
struck US and Canada and 348 people died. 81 people were killed in
Ontario where damages were estimated at $24 million.
(AP, 10/16/04)
1955 Apr 3, In Guadalajara,
Mexico, a night train plunged into a canyon and some 300 people were
killed.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)
1955 Aug 17, Hurricane Diane
followed hurricane Connie and flooded the Connecticut River killing
190 and doing $1.8 billion in damage.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1956 May 26, Aircraft carrier
"Bennington" burned off RI, killing 103.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1956 Jul 7, Seven Army trucks
loaded with dynamite exploded in middle of Cali, Columbia, killing
1,100-1,200. 2000 buildings were destroyed.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1956 Jul 25, The Italian luxury
liner Andrea Doria sank after colliding with the Swedish ship
Stockholm in 200 feet of water 50 miles southeast of Nantucket
Island, Mass. 46 people of its 1,706 passengers and crew were
killed. The Dorea was headed from Genoa, Italy, to NY, and sank
eleven hours after the crash.
(WSJ, 5/30/97, p.A1)(AP, 7/25/97)(SFC, 1/1/99,
p.A16)(SFC, 7/30/99, p.D5)(AP, 1/14/12)
1957 Jul 14, Soviet steamer
"Eshghbad" sank in Caspian Sea and 270 drowned.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1957 Sep 29, In Montgomery,
West Pakistan (later renamed to Sahiwal, Pakistan), an express train
collided with stationary oil train and 250 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)
1958 Sep 15, A commuter train
crashed through a drawbridge, killing 48 in Newark, NJ.
(http://www.emergency-management.net/traincrash.htm)
1958 Dec 1, In Chicago Our Lady
of Angels School burned. 92 students and 3 nuns were killed.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1959 May 8, A 3-deck Nile
excursion steamer sprang a leak panicking passengers who
capsized the ship. 200 drowned just yards from shore.
(MC, 5/8/02)
1960 Jan 22, The Johnburg coal
mine caved in and 417 die.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1960 Mar 28, In Glasgow,
Scotland, a factory exploded burying 20 fire fighters.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1960 Jul 14, Fire raging
through a Guatemala City, Guatemala, insane asylum and 225 were
killed with 300 severely injured.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1960 Oct 10, A cyclone and
tidal wave hit the Gulf of Bengal and killed about 6,000 in East
Pakistan.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1960 Nov 13, Fire in movie
theater killed 152 children in Amude, Spain.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1961 Jan 6, in San Francisco a
fire swept through the buck-a-night Thomas Hotel at 971 Mission St.
killing 19 people and injuring 38.
(SSFC, 1/2/11, p.42)
1961 Jan 15, The hurricane
weakened Texas Tower No. 4, a Cold War radar tower, collapsed in the
North Atlantic 85 miles southeast of NYC. In 2011 Pres. Obama wrote
letter honoring the 28 men killed in the collapse.
(www.radomes.org/museum/documents/TexasTower.html)(SFC, 2/10/11,
p.A4)
1962 Mar 16, US Lockheed
Super-Constellation disappeared above Pacific Ocean and 167 were
killed.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1963 Mar 17, Eruptions of Mount
Agung volcano on Bali killed 1,900 Balinese. The Agung eruption
killed 1,184 people.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A14)(MC, 3/17/02)
1963 Apr 10, The USS Thresher
nuclear-powered submarine failed to surface 220 miles east of
Boston, Mass., in a disaster that claimed 129 lives.
(AP, 4/9/97)(MC, 4/10/02)
1963 May 20-23, In East
Pakistan a cyclone killed about 22,000 along coast of the Bay of
Bengal.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1963 May 28, An estimated
22,000 died in another cyclone in Bay of Bengal, India.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1963 Jul 26, Skopje,
Yugoslavia, was destroyed by earthquake and over 1,000 were killed.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1963 Sep 9, In Italy a
landslide into Vaiont Dam emptied a lake and killed 3-4,000 people.
[see Oct 9]
(MC, 9/9/01)
1963 Oct 4-1963 Oct 8,
Hurricane Flora, killed some 7-8,000 people in Cuba and Haiti.
(SFC, 11/30/98, p.A2)
1963 Nov 23, Sixty-three
elderly people, most of them sleeping, were killed by a fire
destroying the one-story Golden Age Nursing Home near Fitchville,
Ohio.
(AP, 11/23/02)
1963 Dec 8, Three fuel tanks
exploded when a jetliner, struck by lightning, crashed near Elkton,
Maryland. 81 people died. This was the only case of a lightning
caused crash.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1964 Mar 27-1964 Mar 28, Good
Friday, Valdez, Alaska, in Prince William Sound was rocked by an 8.6
earthquake, the largest ever recorded in North America. In 1977
seismologists pegged the quake at 9.2. It lasted 4 minutes and was
followed by tsunamis and fires and 131 people were killed. Survivors
moved 4 miles west to solid bedrock and rebuilt the town. Much of
Crescent City, Ca., was demolished by a resulting tsunami and 11
people were killed.
(AP, 3/27/97)(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T5)(SFEC, 4/5/98,
Z1 p.8)(SFEC, 10/17/99, p.A3)(SFC, 11/26/99, p.C21)(WSJ, 9/13/01,
p.B11)(SFC, 2/15/02, p.G8)(AP, 3/11/11)
1964 Sep 12, Typhoon Gloria
struck Taiwan killing 330, with $17.5 million damage.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1964 In Vietnam a major flood
killed 10,000 people.
(SFC, 11/8/99, p.A12)
1965 Mar 1, Gas explosion
killed 28 in apartment complex at La Salle, Quebec, Canada.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1965 Apr 11, A series of
tornados left 256 people dead in the US Midwest.
(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)
1965 May 11-12, In East
Pakistan a cyclone killed some 12,000.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1965 Jun 1-2, The 2nd of 2
cyclones in less than a month killed 35,000 along the Ganges River
in East Pakistan.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1965 Dec 15, In Karachi,
Pakistan, a cyclone killed about 10,000.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1966 Jan 11, In Brazil 550 died
in landslides in mountains behind Rio de Janeiro after rain.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1966 Jan 29, A snow storm in
north east US killed 165.
(MC, 1/29/02)
1966 Mar 3, A twister hit
Jackson, MS, just 3 minutes after 1st sighting and 57 were killed.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1966 Mar 5, 75 MPH air currents
caused a BOAC 707 to crash into Mount Fuji and 124 died.
(MC, 3/5/02)
1966 Aug 19, An earthquake
struck Varko, Turkey, and some 2,400 were killed.
(MC, 8/19/02)
1966 Nov 4, In Florence, Italy
the River Arno overflowed and damaged the Uffizi Gallery. Whole
libraries of valuable ancient documents were soaked. 113 people were
killed.
(WSJ, 10/29/96, p.A21)(SFC, 4/6/01, p.D4)(MC,
11/4/01)
1967 Oct 12, In India a massive
cyclone struck the rural Orissa state consisting of small villages.
Basically all life (human and animal) and each structure was wiped
out; the precise number of fatalities and destruction is unknown.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1967 Nov 26, Cloudburst over
Lisbon killed 450.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1968 Mar 10, A ferry boat sank
in harbor of Wellington, NZ, and 200 were killed.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1968 Apr 6, Gunpowder stocks at
a sporting-goods store exploded and 43 were killed in Va.
(MC, 4/6/02)
1968 May 27, The US nuclear
submarine Scorpion was lost.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1969 Apr 14, Tornado struck
Dacca in East Pakistan killing 540.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1969 Aug 17, Hurricane Camille
hit the Gulf Coast at Pass Christian, Miss., leaving 256 people
killed in Louisiana and Mississippi. 21 people were killed in an
apartment complex in Pass Christian, where they had taken refuge.
Damage was later estimated at $3.8 billion.
(AP, 8/17/97)(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A17)(AP,
8/30/05)(Econ, 1/14/12, p.61)
1970 Feb 1, In Buenos Aires,
Argentina, an express train rammed stationary commuter train and 236
people were killed.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)
1970 Feb 24, 29 Swiss Army
officers died in avalanche at Reckingen, Switzerland.
(MC, 2/24/02)
1970 May 31, A 7.7 slab
earthquake and debris flow in Peru killed 67,000, injured 50,000 and
destroyed 186,000 buildings.
(AP,
5/31/97)(http://landslides.usgs.gov/html_files/landslides/slides/slide5.htm)
1970 Nov 1, A discotheque in
Grenoble, France, burned. All exits were padlocked and 142 died.
(MC, 11/1/01)
1970 Nov 13, The Bhola Cyclone
killed an estimated 300,000 in East Pakistan (Bangladesh). The
highest loss of life and destruction occurred on the low lying
islands of the Ganges Delta south of Dhaka. In particular the island
and district of Bhola, where casualties may have exceeded 100,000
alone, with the towns of Charfasson and Tazumuddin being devastated.
The city of Chittagong was also badly affected. The official death
toll was put at 150,000, with 100,000 people missing. However many
estimates put the true figure as high as 500,000.
(SFEC, 9/5/04,
p.6)(http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/C_0397.htm)
1971 Feb 21, A series of
tornadoes cut through Miss and La killing 117.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1971 Aug 20-21, In Vietnam
heavy rains flooded the Red River delta and some 100,000 people were
killed.
(www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001440.html)
1971 Sep 29, In India a cyclone
and tidal wave off Bay of Bengal killed as many as 10,000 in Orissa
state.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1972 May 13, In Osaka,
Japan, 118 died in a nightclub atop the 7-story Sennichi dept store.
(http://shippai.jst.go.jp/en/Detail?fn=0&id=CD1000133)
1972 Oct 6, In Saltillo,
Mexico, a 22-car train carrying 2,000 religious pilgrims derailed
and caught fire. 208 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)
1972 Dec 29, Eastern Tri-Star
Jumbo Jet crashed near Everglades killing 101.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1972 The Tutsi-led government
in Burundi killed some 100,000 Hutus.
(SFC, 8/31/99, p.A14)(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A19)
1973 Jan 10, An empty liquefied
natural gas (LNG) tank in Bloomfield on Staten Island exploded and
40 workers were killed.
(www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyrichmo/history.shtml)
1973 Aug 2, A flash fire killed
51 at the Summerland leisure center on the Isle of Man, UK.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerland_disaster)
1974 Apr 3, A series of 148
deadly tornadoes struck wide parts of the South and Midwest before
jumping across the border into Canada; some 330 people were killed
in 13 states: Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky,
Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Total property damage was
estimated at $600 million. In 2007 Mark Levine authored “F5:
Devastation, Survival, and the Most Violent Tornado Outbreak of the
20th Century.”
(AP, 4/3/99)(WSJ, 9/13/01, p.B11)(SSFC, 9/4/05,
p.A7)(WSJ, 6/16/07, p.P10)
1974 Aug 30, In Yugoslavia an
express train ran full speed into a Zagreb, Croatia, rail yard
killing 152.
(www.cmj.hr/2001/42/6/12.htm)
1974 Aug, Monsoon floods
ravaged Bangladesh and some 2,500 were killed.
(http://library.thinkquest.org/C003603/english/flooding/casestudies.shtml#49)
1974 Sep 18, Hurricane Fifi
struck Honduras with 110 mph winds and killed about 8,000. The
hurricane made landfall as a Category 2 storm in Belize on the next
day, and continued through Guatemala and Mexico as a tropical
system. After weakening to a depression, Fifi emerged into the
Pacific Ocean, becoming the first crossover storm since Hurricane
Irene-Olivia in 1971.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Fifi-Orlene)
1974 Dec 25, Cyclone Tracy
reduced 90% of Darwin, Australia, to rubble. 65 people died
including 49 in the city and 16 at sea.
(SFEC, 9/10/00,
p.T10)(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1974 A South Korean ship sank
off the southeast coast in stormy weather, killing 159 sailors and
coast guard personnel.
(AP, 3/27/10)
1975 Feb 28, A London subway
train smashed into the end of a tunnel at Moorgate Underground
station and 43 people were killed.
(AP, 1/23/06)
1975 Aug 7, In China a dam
collapse in Henan province killed tens of thousands of people. The
event was covered up for many years. A typhoon from the South China
Sea brought three successive days of enormous rain storms to the
area of southern Henan Province. Altogether 62 dams failed in one
night, including two major dams. As a result of this catastrophe
85,600 people died according to the official government figures but
others place the toll at 230 thousand.
(WSJ, 8/29/07,
p.A12)(www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/3gorges.htm)
1975 Dec 28, An earthquake in
Pakistan killed some 4,000 people.
(MC, 12/28/01)
1976 Jun 5, The Teton Dam in
Idaho burst catastrophically and water blasted through a narrow
canyon and onto Sugar City. It released nearly 300,000 acre feet of
water, then flooded farmland and towns downstream with the eventual
loss of 14 lives, directly or indirectly, and with a cost estimated
to be nearly $1 billion.
(AP,
6/5/00)(www.geol.ucsb.edu/faculty/sylvester/Teton%20Dam/welcome_dam.html)
1976 Jul 28, In China a 7.8-8.2
earthquake in the northern city of Tangshan killed at least 242,000
people. This was reported as the deadliest earthquake in the last
100 years.
(AP,
7/28/97)(http://history1900s.about.com/od/horribledisasters/a/tangshan.htm)
1976 Dec 25, 100 Moslems,
returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, died when their boat, the
Egyptian SS Patria, sank in the Red Sea.
(HN, 12/25/98)(MC, 12/25/01)
1977 May 18, A nightclub fire
in Cincinnati killed 164.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1977 May 28, 165 people were
killed when fire raced through the Beverly Hills Supper Club in
Southgate, Ky.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1977 Jul 20, A flash flood hit
Johnstown, Pa., killing more than 80 people and causing $350 million
worth of damage.
(AP, 7/20/08)
1977 Nov 6, 39 people were
killed when an earthen dam burst, sending a wall of water through
Toccoa Falls Bible College in Georgia.
(AP, 11/6/97)
1977 Nov 19, A cyclone and
tidal wave hit Andhra Pradesh, India. Entire villages were submerged
by tidal waves with an estimated 10-20 thousand people killed.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)(SFC,
11/1/99, p.A11)(AP, 11/21/02)
1977 Dec 22, Three dozen people
were killed when a 250-foot-high grain elevator at the Continental
Grain Co. plant in Westwego, La., exploded.
(AP, 12/22/97)
1978 Apr 16, A tornado struck
in Orissa, India, and killed 500-600 people.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Apr 27, In West Virginia
51 construction workers plunged to their deaths when a scaffold
inside a cooling tower at the nuclear Pleasants Power Station on
Willow Island fell 168 feet to the ground.
(AP, 4/27/98)(MC, 4/27/02)
1978 Jul 11, 216 people were
killed at a camping site when a tanker truck overfilled with
propylene gas exploded on a coastal highway south of Tarragona,
Spain.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)(AP, 7/11/97)
1978 Aug 19, The Cinema Rex in
Abadan, Iran, was set ablaze, killing over 400 individuals. The
ruling government of Iran reported that Islamic militants set the
fire, while the anti-Shah protesters blamed the intelligence service
of the nation, SAVAK for setting the fire. Later it was disclosed
that Islamic militants set the Cinema Rex fire.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_Rex_fire)
1978 Nov 5, Floods in Tamil
Nadu and Kerala, India, killed 125 people.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Nov 18, In Jonestown,
Guyana, California Rep. Leo J. Ryan and four other people,
investigating the Jim Jones cult, were killed by members of the
Peoples Temple. Greg Robinson, a SF Examiner photographer, Don
Harris, NBC correspondent, Bob Brown, NBC cameraman, and Patricia
Parks, a temple defector, were shot dead. Congressional aide Jackie
Speier survived 5 bullets. The killings were followed by a night of
mass murder and suicide. 918 people died at Jonestown, including 260
children. In 1982 John Jacobs and Tim Reiterman authored "Raven: The
Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People." In 2010 Laura
Johnston Kohl authored “Jonestown Survivor: An Insider’s Look.” In
2011 survivors unveiled a memorial at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland,
Ca., with the names of all the dead.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jones)(SFEM,
11/17/96, p.22)(AP, 11/18/97)(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.A18)(SFC, 5/25/00,
p.C2)(SSFC, 11/16/03, p.D1)(http://tinyurl.com/4ync97m)(SFC,
5/30/11, p.C1)
1979 Aug 30, Hurricane David
devastated the tiny Caribbean island of Dominica as it began a
rampage through the Caribbean and up the eastern seaboard of the
United States that claimed some 1,100 lives.
(AP, 8/30/97)
1980 Mar 27, The Alexander L.
Kielland, a North Sea Norwegian floating oil field platform,
capsized during a storm killing 123 workers. It was owned by the
Stavanger Drilling Company of Norway and was on hire to the US
company Phillips Petroleum at the time of the disaster.
(AP,
3/27/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_L._Kielland_%28platform%29)
1980 May 9, 35 motorists were
killed when a Liberian freighter rammed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge
over Tampa Bay in Florida, causing a 1,400-foot section of the
bridge to collapse.
(AP, 5/9/97)
1980 May 20, Fire in nursing
home in Kingston, Jamaica, killed 157.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1980 Nov 21, 87 people died in
a fire at the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas, Nev.
(AP, 11/21/97)
1980 Nov 23, In Europe's
biggest earthquake since 1915, 3,000 were killed in Italy. Some
4,800 people were killed by a series of earthquakes that devastated
southern Italy.
(WSJ, 6/17/96, p.A12)(TMC, 1994, p.1980)(AP,
11/23/97) (HN, 11/23/98)
1981 Jan 27, The Indonesian
passenger ship Tamponas II caught fire and sank in Java sea killing
580 people.
(AP, 2/3/06)
1981 Apr 29, In Sydney,
Australia, 16 patients died in a nursing home fire in suburban
Sylvania Heights.
(AP, 11/19/11)(http://tinyurl.com/6sq3xp8)
1981 Jun 6, In Bihar, India, a
train crashed after a bridge collapsed in flash floods during the
monsoon and some 400-800 people were killed in what was reportedly
world's worst train disaster.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A8)(AP,
4/23/04)
1982 Jul 18, In Guatemala
soldiers and paramilitary troops massacred 267 people in the remote
hamlet of Plan de Sanchez. In 2001 local communities filed genocide
charges against congressional head Efrain Rios Montt, who was
the dictator at the time of the massacre.
(SFC, 6/6/01, p.C3)
1983 May 25, Fire in
Nassermeer, Egypt, killed 357.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1983 Nov 27, 183 people were
killed when a Colombian Avianca Airlines Boeing 747 crashed near
Madrid's Barajas airport.
(AP, 11/27/97)
1984 Mar, A storm system
spawned 22 twisters in the Carolinas that killed 57 people,
including 42 in North Carolina, and injured hundreds.
(AP, 4/17/11)
1984 Nov 19, Near Mexico City,
Mexico, 5 million liters of liquefied butane exploded at a storage
facility with more than 400 deaths.
(HSAB, 1994, p.46)
1984 Dec 3, More than 4,000
people died and 200,000 were injured after a gas escaped from a
pesticide plant operated by a Union Carbide subsidiary in Bhopal,
India. 40 tons of vaporous methyl isocyanate, hydrogen cyanide,
monomethyl amine, carbon monoxide and possibly 20 other chemicals
were released after an explosion. Over the years, according to the
Indian government, some 15,000 people have died from effects of the
gas. In 2011 India issued notices to Dow seeking payment of $1.7
billion, on top of $470 million already paid, due to the lingering
effects of the poison.
(WSJ, 11/27/96, p.A1)(HN, 12/3/98)(SFEC, 3/5/00,
p.A23)(AP, 12/3/04)(SFC, 3/1/11, p.A2)
1985 Jan 13, An express train
derailed in Ethiopia and killed at least 428.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1985 May 11, More than 50
people died when a flash fire swept a jam-packed soccer stadium in
Bradford, England.
(AP, 5/11/97)
1985 May 25, A cyclone ravaged
the Meghna River delta of Bangladesh. Some 10,000 people and 500,000
head of cattle died; hundreds of thousands were left homeless.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1985 May 31, 41 tornadoes hit
the Northeast US, killing 88.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1985 Nov 6, In Columbia some 35
leftist M-19 rebels took over the Palace of Justice. A military raid
to liberate hostages held by M-19 guerrillas at the Supreme Court
followed and cost more than 100 lives, including 11 Supreme Court
justices and all 30 guerrillas.
(WSJ, 1/3/97, p.A6)(WSJ, 1/8/97, p.A12)(SFEC,
4/20/98, p.A8)
1985 Nov 13, Some 23,000
residents of Armero, Colombia, died when a mudslide, triggered by
the Nevado del Ruiz volcano, buried the city under 30 feet of mud.
(PacDisc. Spring/’96, p.27)(AP, 11/13/97)(SFEC,
7/12/98, p.A22)
1986 Apr 14, Double-decker
ferry sank in stormy weather in Bangladesh killing 200.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1986 May 25, Ferry boat Shamia
sank on Maghna River in Bangladesh and some 600 were killed.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1986 Aug 21, In Cameroon 1,746
people died when toxic gas, an invisible bubble of CO2, erupted
[seeped out] from a volcano under Lake Nyos. Venting of the lake
began in 2001.
(AP, 8/21/97)(WSJ, 11/17/97, p.B1)(SFC, 8/14/99,
p.A6)(SC, 8/21/02)(AP, 2/15/03)
1986 Aug 31, The Soviet
passenger ship Admiral Nakhimov collided with a merchant vessel in
the Black Sea, causing both vessels to sink; up to 448 people
reportedly died.
(AP, 8/31/97)
1987 Mar 6, The British ferry
Herald of Free Enterprise capsized in the Channel off the coast of
Belgium. At least 26 were dead. 189 (192) people died when a British
ferry capsized off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.
(HN, 3/6/98)(AP, 3/6/98)(MC, 3/6/02)
1987 May 23, Rescue workers and
survivors searched through the rubble of a killer tornado in
Saragosa, Texas, that had claimed 30 lives. Texas Gov. Bill Clements
expressed his sorrow, and pledged all possible help.
(AP, 5/23/97)
1987 Nov 26, Powerful typhoon
whipped across Philippines, killing 270 people and damaging or
destroying 14,000 homes.
(AP, 11/26/02)
1987 Dec 20, Some 4,340 people
were killed when the Dona Paz, a Philippine passenger ship, collided
with the tanker Vector off Mindoro island, setting off a double
explosion.
(AP, 2/3/06)
1988 Feb 20, Some 500 people
died in heavy rains in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1988 May 14, Twenty-seven
people, most of them teen-agers, were killed when their church bus
collided with a pickup truck going the wrong way on a highway near
Carrollton, Ky. The driver of the truck, Larry Mahoney, was
convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment.
(AP, 5/14/98)
1988 Jul 6, A series of
explosions and fires destroyed the Piper Alpha North Sea oil
drilling platform. 167 North Sea oil workers were killed.
(AP, 7/6/98)(SFC, 8/9/04, p.B6)
1988 Aug 28, Seventy [33]
people were killed when three Italian stunt planes collided during
an air show at the U.S. Air Base in Ramstein, West Germany, sending
flaming debris into the crowd of spectators.
(AP, 8/28/98)(RTH, 8/28/99)
1988 Sep 12, Hurricane Gilbert,
called the storm of the century, smashed into the Gulf coast. It
slammed into Jamaica with torrential rains and winds of 145 mph,
killing 45 people and causing damage estimated at up to $1 billion.
It also devastated the Yucatan peninsula and left 225 people dead.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.181)(AP, 9/12/97)(SFC, 10/10/97,
p.A15)
1988 Dec 1, 596 were killed
after a cyclone hit Bangladesh. Half a million were left homeless.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1988 Dec 7, A magnitude 6.9-8.0
earthquake devastated Spitak in northern Armenia; an estimated
25,000 people died with some $14 billion in losses.
(AP, 12/7/97)(AP,
6/22/02)(www.who.int/archives/inf-pr-1997/en/pr97-08.html)
1988 Dec 14, Sixty more
survivors were pulled from rubble of earthquake that rocked Armenia.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1988 In Bangladesh
monsoon floods left over 3,000 dead this year.
(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A15)
1989 Apr 7, A Soviet
nuclear-powered submarine, the Komsomolets, caught fire and sank in
the Norwegian Sea, claiming 42 of 69 lives.
(AP, 4/7/99)(SFC, 8/14/00, p.A13)
1989 Apr 15, 95 people died in
a crush of soccer fans at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield,
England.
(AP, 4/15/97)
1989 Apr 27, A hurricane in
Bangladesh killed 500.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1989 Jun 3, An explosion of a
liquefied gas pipeline engulfed two Trans-Siberian Railroad trains
parked outside the Central Asian city of Ufa in the Soviet Union.
575 people were killed.
(AP, 4/23/04)
1989 Nov 27, 107 people were
killed when a bomb blamed by police on drug traffickers destroyed a
Colombian jetliner minutes after takeoff from Bogota's international
airport.
(AP, 11/27/99)
1990 Jan 4, In Sindh Province,
Pakistan, an overcrowded 16-car passenger train collided with
standing freight train and more than 210 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)
1990 Mar 25, Eighty-seven
people, most of them Honduran and Dominican immigrants, were killed
when an arson fire raced through the illegal Happy Land Social Club
in New York City. Julio Gonzalez, 36, was charged with arson and
murder.
(AP, 3/25/97)(SFC, 3/31/99, p.A3)(MC, 3/25/02)
1990 Apr 7, An arson fire
aboard a ferry enroute from Norway to Denmark killed 159 people.
(AP, 4/7/00)(AP, 1/14/12)
1990 Jul 16, 1600 die in a 7.7
earthquake in Philippines.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1990 Dec 22, Twenty-one sailors
returning from shore leave to the aircraft carrier USS "Saratoga"
drowned when the Israeli ferry they were traveling on capsized.
(AP, 12/22/00)
1990-2001 Over 1,000 Jammu-Kashmir civilians were
killed by land mines over this period along with nearly 9,000
injuries.
(SSFC, 1/13/02, p.A18)
1991 Apr 26, Twenty-three
people were killed as four dozen tornadoes raked Kansas and
Oklahoma.
(AP, 4/26/01)
1991 Apr 29, Cyclone struck
Bangladesh. [see Apr 30]
(MC, 4/29/02)
1991 Apr 29, More than 100
people were killed and some 100,000 were left homeless when a strong
earthquake struck Soviet Georgia.
(AP, 4/29/01)
1991 Apr 30-31, A cyclone in
Bangladesh killed an estimated 131,000 people. 9 million were left
homeless. Thousands of survivors died from hunger and water borne
disease.
(AP, 4/30/97)(SFC, 5/19/97,
p.A13)(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1991 May 14, Forty-two people
were killed in a train collision in western Japan.
(AP, 5/14/01)
1991 Jun 15, In the Philippines
Mount Pinatubo (4,750 feet high) erupted. Due to early warning
56,000 people were evacuated and only 450 people died. The eruption
forced the closure of Clark Air Force Base in Angeles City and
displaced hundreds of families of the Aeta tribe. [see June 1,12]
(PacDisc. Spring/’96, p.27)(SSFC, 11/11/01, p.F4)
1991 Nov 5, Nearly 7,000 people
were killed in floods in the Philippines.
(AP, 11/5/01)
1991 Dec 28, Nine people died
in a crush to get into a basketball game at City College in New
York. The game was promoted by rapper Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs. Combs
later testified that security at the Nat Holman facility was
supposed to be provided by NYCC.
(AP, 12/28/97)(SFC, 3/24/98, p.A3)
1992 Mar 3, In Turkey a gas
explosion in underground coal mine in Kozlu, near the Black Sea port
of Zonguldak, claimed 263 lives.
(AP, 3/3/02)(AP, 5/17/10)
1992 Mar 8, Ninety people were
killed when a ferry carrying pilgrims to a Buddhist shrine collided
with an oil tanker in the Gulf of Thailand.
(AP, 3/8/02)
1992 Mar 13, 570 died in a
Turkish earthquake.
(MC, 3/13/02)
1992 Aug 31, A dynamite
explosion in Philippines mine killed 500 people.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1993 Feb 17, A ferry carrying
up to 1,500 people sank off Haiti; only 285 people were known to
have survived.
(AP, 2/17/98)
1993 May 10, At least 188
workers were killed in a doll factory fire in Bangkok, Thailand.
(AP, 5/10/98)
1994 Feb 5, Sixty-eight people
were killed when a mortar shell exploded in a marketplace in
Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(WSJ, 6/11/96, p.A14)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)(AP,
2/5/99)
1994 Mar 13, The oil tanker
Nassia collided with an empty cargo ship at the entrance of the
Bosporus. 27-29 people lost their lives. 9,000 tons of petroleum
spilled and 20,000 tons burned for four days long affecting the
marine environment.
(www.bosphorusstrait.com/the-bosporus-strait/incidents/)(AP,
4/27/11)
1994 Apr 13, President guard at
Kigali Rwanda, chopped 1,200 church members to death.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1994 Apr 22, In Butare gasoline
was used to set ablaze a building where 500 Tutsis were hiding. In
2001 Benedictine Sister Maria Kisito stood trial in Belgium for
providing the gasoline. 7,000 Tutsi's were slaughtered in stadium of
Kibuye, Rwanda.
(SFC, 4/18/01, p.A12)(MC, 4/22/02)
1994 Apr 29, Ferry boat smashed
into Mombasa Harbor, Kenya, and over 300 were killed.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1994 Sep 22, In Tolunda,
Angola, faulty brakes caused a train to plunge into a ravine and
some 300 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)
1994 Sep 28, More than 900
(909) people died when the ferry Estonia capsized and sank off the
Finnish coast in the Baltic sea. 852 people of 989 onboard were
killed. In 1999 evidence was reported that 3 explosive devices had
been placed on the ship's visor-like bow door.
(AP, 9/28/99)(SFC, 12/31/99, p.A16)(MC, 9/28/01)
1994 Nov 14, Heavy rains and
flooding from Tropical Storm Gordon swept across Haiti, killing
several hundred people.
(AP, 11/14/99)
1995 Apr 22, In Africa, Rwandan
government troops killed thousands of Hutu refugees in Kibeho. The
Tutsi-led government troops cleared a huge refugee camp that they
said was full of Hutu extremists. Human rights officials said that
at least 4,000 Hutus were killed, many shot, and many trampled.
Tutsi officers involved received only token punishments.
(SFC, 4/8/99, p.C3)(HN, 4/22/99)(SFC, 4/8/02,
p.A6)
1995 Aug 20, In Firozabad,
India, a speeding passenger train crashed into a train that had
stalled after hitting a cow and some 358 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A8)(AP,
8/20/00)
1995 Dec 14, Heavy fighting
erupts in Gudermes, Chechnya, when rebels disrupted Kremlin-imposed
elections. At least 267 Chechen civilians were reported killed in
the following 10 days.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1995 Dec 26, Floods in eastern
South Africa killed at least 130.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-1)
1996 Jan 8, A Russian-made
Antonov-32 skidded into a crowded marketplace shortly after take-off
in Kinshasa in Zaire (Congo) and killed at least 350 people. The
twin-turboprop was owned by African Air and was overweight when it
took off. At least 470 people were injured.
(WSJ, 1/9/96, p.A-1) (SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-14)(WSJ,
11/13/01, p.A14)
1996 Mar 19, A fire at a Quezon
City nightclub in the Philippines killed at least 149 young people
celebrating the end of their school year.
(WSJ, 3/19/96, p.A-1)
1996 Apr 2, More than 100
Haitians died when a ferry sank.
(WSJ, 4/3/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 21, A Tanzanian ferry
sank on Lake Victoria and at least 615 people, many of whom were
students, were killed. Pres. Mkapa called the sinking a national
disaster. The ferry, MV Bukoba with capacity for 441, was traveling
from Bukoba to Mwanza. 563 of the 663 aboard were presumed dead.
(WSJ, 5/22/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 5/22/96, p.A8)(WSJ,
5/23/96, p.A-1)(AP, 5/21/97)
1996 May 23, In Bangladesh as
many as 77 people were feared drowned in a sunken ferry after a
collision on the Jamuna River. More than 50 ferries have sunk since
1981 killing more than 1,000 people.
(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A11)
1996 Jul 19, In China the
Yangtze River threatened to burst its banks. Workers used 500 tons
of rice in sacks to fill gaps in the banks. Millions were left
homeless and 716 were reported dead.
(SFC, 7/20/96, p.A8)
1996 Jul 27, A ship carrying 69
people sank in the Indian Ocean off the Comoro islands near the
island of Mwali. 5 survivors were found.
(WSJ, 7/29/96, p.A1)
1996 Nov 6, In India cyclone
07B struck Andhra Pradesh state. [see Nov 7]
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1996 Nov 7, In India cyclone
07B killed some 2000 in Andhra Pradesh state. Damage was estimated
at $1.5 billion.
(WSJ, 11/8/96, p.A1)(SFC, 11/12/96,
p.A11)(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1996 Nov 19, Fourteen people
were killed when a commuter plane collided with a private plane at
Baldwin Municipal Airport in Quincy, Ill.
(SFC, 11/20/96, p.A4)(AP, 11/19/97)
1996 Nov 20, In Hong Kong a
fire raged in the 16-story Garley Building and 39 people died.
(SFC, 11/21/96, p.C3)(SFC, 11/22/96, p.A22)(AP,
11/20/97)
1996 Nov 21, Thirty-three
people were killed, and more than 100 injured, when an explosion
blamed on leaking gas ripped through a six-story building in San
Juan, Puerto Rico.
(AP, 11/21/97)
1996 Nov 23, An Ethiopian
Boeing 767 airliner crashed into the Indian ocean near Grand Comore
Island. It had been hijacked after takeoff from Addis Ababa and ran
out of fuel under hijacker demands to fly to Australia. 125 of 175
people died. The plane was destined for the Ivory Coast with stops
along the way.
(SFEC, 11/24/96, p.A1,10)(SFC, 11/26/96,
p.B3)(AP, 11/23/97)
1996 Dec 22, Eight workers were
killed in an explosion at the Wyman Gordon Forgings
metal-fabricating plant in northwest Houston. They had been doing
maintenance on 9-story pressurized tanks.
(SFC, 12/24/96, p.A3)(AP, 12/22/97)
1996 Dec 25, In Malaysia
tropical storm Greg killed at least 163 people in the northern
Borneo state of Sabah.
(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A1)(SFC, 12/30/96, p.A8)
1996 Dec 25, Some 280 migrants
form India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were suspected of having drowned
in the Mediterranean while being transshipped in the Malta-Sicily
channel.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.A13)
1997 Feb 18, In Peru at least
33 people were killed and a hundred were missing after an Andean
mountain collapsed and buried the villages of Choch and Pumaranra
near Abancay. Total killed reached 250-300. Only 50 bodies were
recovered.
(SFC, 2/19/97, p.A11)(SFC, 2/25/97, p.a14)
1997 Feb 23, In eastern India A
fire in Baripada killed 190 worshippers at the 46th annual festival
in honor of the late Swami Nigamananda.
(SFC, 2/24/97, p.A10)(SFC, 2/25/97, p.a14)(AP,
2/23/98)
1997 May 13, In the Congo rebel
troops reached Wendji and Mbandaka and proceeded to kill Hutu
refugees. Estimates of deaths varied from 550-2000.
(WSJ, 6/6/97, p.A11)(SFC, 9/23/97, p.A11)
1997 May 18-19, In Bangladesh a
cyclone pounded the country and 50,000 people were evacuated from
the flat coastal region. 350 [67] [112] people were reported killed.
(SFC, 5/19/97, p.A13)(SFC, 5/20/97, p.A12)(SFC,
5/21/97, p.A8)(SFC, 5/22/97, p.A3)
1997 Jul 11, In Thailand a
kitchen fire went out of control at the 450-room Royal Jomtien Hotel
in Pattaya and killed 90 people with 64 injured.
(SFC, 7/12/97, p.A10)(WSJ, 7/11/97, p.A12)
1997 Nov 6, In Cuba a train-bus
crash killed at least 56 people at Urbano Rey in the eastern sugar
province of Holguin.
(WSJ, 11/7/97, p.A1)
1998 Feb 3, A US surveillance
aircraft cut a ski cable in Italy and caused the death of 20 skiers
in a gondola cable car running from Cavalese to the Alpe Cermis. The
EA-6B aircraft was normally used for patrols over Bosnia and was
only slightly damaged. Lt. Col. Steven Watters was later relieved of
command for telling crew members of a related squadron to destroy
evidence in the investigation. The pilot did not have Italian
military maps that identified the ski lift. Four crewmen were later
charged by the Marine Corps with negligent homicide, involuntary
manslaughter and dereliction of duty. The pilot and navigator faced
trial for manslaughter. Pilot Richard J. Ashby was acquitted of all
charges in 1999. Navigator Joseph Schweitzer was acquitted of
manslaughter and negligent homicide charges. Schweitzer later
pleaded guilty to obstruction and conspiracy charges for destroying
a videotape made during the flight. The tape indicated that the
plane had been flying upside down. Schweitzer was sentenced to
dismissal from the Marine Corps. Capt. Ashby (32) was found guilty
of obstruction of justice and conspiracy in May, 1999 and was
sentenced to 6 months in prison and dismissed from the Marine Corps.
Families of the victims settled for $2 million apiece in 2000.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.A7)(SFC, 2/11/98, p.A11)(SFC,
2/19/98, p.B10)(SFC, 3/27/98, p.A14)(SFC, 7/11/98, p.A2)(SFC,
3/5/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/16/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/30/99, p.A1)(SFC, 4/3/99,
p.A3)(SFC, 5/1/99, p.A4)(SFC, 5/8/99, p.A4)(SFC, 5/11/99, p.A4)(SFC,
4/26/00, p.A4)
1998 Feb 23, In Florida 6-10
tornadoes killed forty-two people. Some 2,600 homes and businesses
damaged or destroyed, by tornadoes in Seminole, Osceola, Orange,
Brevard and Volusia counties Florida.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/24/98, p.A1)(AP,
2/23/99)
1998 Mar 22, In Miles Township,
Pa., 11 students were killed in a cabin fire while on a camping
trip.
(SFC, 3/23/98, p.A2)(AP, 3/22/99)
1998 Mar 24, In India a tornado
killed 105 people and some 500 were missing. At least 80 died in the
Midnapore district of West Bengal state and some 1,100 were injured.
At least 200 people were killed and thousands injured from a tornado
in West Bengal and Orissa states.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.C3)(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A5)
1998 Mar 26, In Kenya a fire at
a school near Mombasa killed 25 teenage girls in their dormitory.
(WSJ, 3/26/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 4, In the Ukraine a
gas explosion at the Skochinsky coal mine outside Donetsk killed 63
men.
(SFEC, 4/5/98, p.A20)(AP, 4/4/08)
1998 May 15, Trapped in blazing
shopping malls, hundreds of looters burned to death in rioting that
laid smoking waste to Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.
(AP, 5/15/99)
1998 Jul 17, In Papua New
Guinea a tidal wave followed a 7.0 earthquake at the Solomon Islands
and killed at 2,500-3,000 people. The villages of Malol, Arop, Otto,
Warupu and Sissano were turned into barren strips of sand.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A10)(SFEC, 7/20/98, p.A1)(SFC,
8/4/99, p.A10)
1998 Jul 18, Residents along
the northern coast of Papua New Guinea were left reeling after a
23-foot-high tidal wave hit the night before, killing an estimated
3,000.
(AP, 7/18/99)
1998 Aug 7, In China the death
toll from the summer floods passed 2,000 and the Jingjiang flood
plain was ordered evacuated.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A14)
1998 Aug 26, In China the
government revised its death toll from the floods to over 3,000
[4,150] people.
(SFC, 8/27/98, p.a14)(SFC, 8/6/99, p.A12)
1998 Nov 2, The death toll from
Hurricane Mitch continued to rise with 174 killed in El Salvador,
100 in Guatemala, 0ver 1,500 in Nicaragua and over 5,500 in
Honduras. Central American officials estimated more than 7,000
people had died in floods and mudslides triggered by Hurricane
Mitch.
(SFC, 11/3/98, p.A1,11)(AP, 11/2/99)
1998 Nov 5, The death toll from
Hurricane Mitch was reduced to 6,076 in Honduras and increased to
4,000 in Nicaragua. Aid of $66 mil was ordered from the US, $8 mil
from the EU, $11.6 mil from Spain along with pledges from other
countries and private organizations.
(SFC, 11/6/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 17, In Angola renewed
fighting had created some 331,000 refugees since April.
(WSJ, 11/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 23, An Arctic cold
wave was reported to have killed 71 people across Europe over the
last 3 days. 36 deaths were in Poland and 24 in Romania and
Bulgaria.
(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 26, In the Punjab
state of India a passenger train derailed near Khanna in the path of
an express train in the northwest and at least 108 [211] people were
killed.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.B5)(WSJ, 11/27/98, p.A1)(AP,
11/26/99)
1998 Dec 3, In the Philippines
a fire burned the Catholic Bahay Kalinga orphanage in Manila and at
least 28 people were killed including 23 children.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A21)(WSJ, 12/4/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 25, In Lima, Peru, a
tear gas bomb caused a stampede in a disco and 9 young people,
13-21, were crushed to death. The bomb was said to have been thrown
by members of a youth gang.
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.A14)
1999 Mar 24, In the 7-mile Mt.
Blanc tunnel between France and Italy a fire killed 4 people with
smoke a burning truck transporting flour. The death toll was raised
to 9 with 24 injured. The fire was extinguished after 3 days and the
death toll rose to 35. Identification of the remains of at least 40
people began Mar 28. Thirty-nine people were killed when fire
erupted in the Mont Blanc tunnel in France and burned for two days.
It re-opened in 2002.
(WSJ, 3/25/99, p.A1)(SFC, 3/26/99, p.A14)(SFC,
3/27/99, p.A10)(SFC, 3/29/99, p.A8)(AP, 3/24/00)(SSFC, 3/17/02,
p.C4)
1999 Apr 27, A NATO bomb missed
a targeted army barracks and killed at 20 people, half of them
children, in a residential area of Surdulica, Serbia.
(SFC, 4/28/99, p.A10)(SFC, 4/28/99, p.A14)
1999 May 30, In Belarus at
least 54 people, mostly teen-age girls, were killed in a stampede
near an underground passageway in Minsk as they left a concert by a
local beer company due to a sudden heavy rain.
(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 2, In India the
Brahmputra Mail train from Gauhati collided with the Awadh-Assam
Express from New Delhi at Gaisan Station. Over 285 people were
killed and a 1000 injured. A faulty switch was suspected.
(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A8)(SFC, 8/4/99, p.A9)(SFC,
8/5/99, p.A14)(AP, 2/18/04)
1999 Sep 20, In Taiwan a 7.6
earthquake killed an estimated 2,161 people and injured over 3,500.
2,600 people were believed to be buried alive. Aftershocks the next
day registered at 6.8 and 100,000 people were homeless.
(SFC, 9/21/99, p.A1)(SFC, 9/22/99, p.A1)(WSJ,
9/22/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/22/99, p.A1)
(http://nisee.berkeley.edu/taiwan/)
1999 Oct 29, In eastern India
hundreds of people in Orissa state and the Bay of Bengal region were
feared dead from 05B, the 2nd cyclone in 2 weeks. The number of dead
was estimated to reach 3,000 and 1.5 million people were homeless.
The official dead toll reached 924 on Nov 4. At least 8,000 people
were killed around the port city of Paradeep, where the storm made
first landfall. The death toll was predicted to climb past 10,000.
9,813 death were recorded and the government stopped free rice
distribution after about 3 weeks.
(SFC, 10/30/99, p.A14)(SFC, 11/1/99, p.A11)(SFC,
11/5/99, p.D4)(SFC, 11/6/99, p.A24)(SFC, 11/10/99, p.A11)(SFC,
11/25/99, p.D6)
1999 Nov 12, In Turkey a 7.2
[7.1] earthquake was centered at Duzce and 549 [834] people were
killed and 3000 injured. Damage from the last 2 quakes was later
estimated at $10-25 billion.
(SFC, 11/13/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A1)(SFC,
11/15/99, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/17/99, p.A1)(SFC, 4/28/00, p.D6)(AP,
11/12/00)
1999 Nov 19, In Hyderabad,
India (Reuters), an outbreak of Japanese encephalitis has killed 133
people, all of them children, in the southern Indian state of Andhra
Pradesh, health officials said after reporting 10 new deaths.
(Excite, 11/20/99)
1999 Nov 25, The Chinese ferry,
Dashun, with 312 passengers caught fire and sank in stormy seas on
the Bohai Strait near Yantai in Shandong province. Only 22
passengers were rescued. [see Nov 24]
(SFC, 11/26/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/26/99, p.A1)(SFC,
11/27/99, p.A14)
1999 Dec 26, In Europe heavy
winds and rain killed at least 79 people with 44 dead in France, 17
dead in Germany and 13 dead in Switzerland. A 2nd storm hit a day
later. Damages from the storms were later estimated to be at least
$4 billion with 90 people dead. The storms destroyed an estimated
400 million trees across France.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A12)(WSJ, 12/27/99, p.A1)(SFC,
12/28/99, p.A8)(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A11)(SFC, 1/15/00, p.A1)
2000 May 13, In the Netherlands
a fireworks depot exploded in Enschede and 20 people were killed
with 589 injured. An estimated 100 tons of fireworks exploded and
flattened some 400 houses.
(SFEC, 5/14/00, p.A12)(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A13)
2000 Nov 5, In Nigeria at least
96 people were killed when an oil tanker truck slammed into a line
of parked vehicles at a police check point between Ife and Ibadan.
(SFC, 11/7/00, p.B2)
2000 Nov 11, In Austria a fire
consumed a train in an Alpine tunnel at Kitzsteinhorn mountain near
Kaprun. 155 people, mostly children and teenagers, were killed.
(SFEC, 11/12/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/15/00, p.A1)(WSJ,
11/16/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 17, In South Africa 11
workers died from a fire while apparently locked in a floor polish
factory in Lenasia.
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.C16)
2000 Nov 25, In Bangladesh 52
people were killed in a fire at the Chowdhury Knitwear Garments
factory at Shibpur.
(SSFC, 11/26/00, p.D9)(SSFC, 4/15/01, p.D1)
2000 Dec 25, In central China
as many as 309 young people were killed at an unlicensed disco fire
in Louyang city.
(SFC, 12/26/00, p.C6)(AP, 12/25/01)
2001 Mar 6, In Nigeria 30 girls
died from a fire at the Gindiri Girls School in Jos. They were
reportedly locked in for the night so as not to mix with boys.
(WSJ, 3/8/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 5, Dutch driver Perry
Wacker was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 14 years in
prison in the deaths of 58 Chinese immigrants who suffocated in his
truck in Dover, England.
(AP, 4/5/02)
2001 Nov 5, Baxter said its
dialysis filters appear to have played a role in the deaths of 53
patients in Texas, Nebraska, and 6 countries in Europe, south
America and Asia.
(WSJ, 11/6/01, p.A3)
2001 Nov 12, American Airlines
Flight 587, bound for the Dominican Republic, crashed in Belle
Harbor in the Far Rockaway district of Queens just after takeoff
from JFK Airport. All 260 crew and passengers were killed as well as
a number of people on the ground. The plane appeared to have fallen
apart. The vertical tail section cracked off when composite fittings
failed possibly due to turbulence from a preceding 747.
(SFC, 11/13/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/13/01, p.A1)(SFC,
11/14/01, p.A14)(SFC, 11/15/01, p.A19)
2001 Nov 22, In the Gaza Strip
5 Palestinian boys (6-14) were killed when a bomb exploded beneath
them as a walked to school.
(SFC, 11/23/01, p.A17)
2001 Dec 26, In Brazil rescue
workers searched for victims of earth slides and flooding that
killed at least 49 people in Rio de Janeiro state.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A5)
2002 Feb 19, In Cairo, Egypt,
an overcrowded train en route from Cairo to the southern city of
Luxor burst into flames from a gas cannister. It then traveled 2 1/2
miles before the driver stopped. 361 people were killed.
(SFC, 2/20/02, p.A9)(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A8)(AFP,
5/27/04)
2002 Feb 27, In India Muslim
attackers allegedly set fire to a train carrying Hindu nationalists
and 58 were killed as the Sabarmati Express left Godhra in Gujarat
state. Hindu nationalists went rampaging and at least 5 Muslims were
killed in other towns. 3 months of rioting followed with some 2000
dead in revenge attacks. In 2005 a government panel said the fire
was not set by a Muslim mob. Narendra Modi, chief minister of
Gujarat, was later blamed for the violence. On Feb 22, 2011, 31
people were convicted on conspiracy and murder charges over the
deadly train fire. On Feb 28, 2011, an Indian court handed 11 death
sentences and 20 life terms to Muslims convicted of burning Hindus
alive in the train fire.
(SFC, 2/28/02, p.A7)(SFC, 6/28/03, p.A3)(WSJ,
1/18/05, p.A1)(Econ, 3/26/05, p.44)(AFP, 2/22/11)(AFP, 3/1/11)
2002 May 25, In India at least
60 people, on their way to a wedding, were electrocuted when their
bus hit a high-voltage power wire in Uttar Pradesh state.
(SSFC, 5/26/02, p.A14)
2002 May 25, In Tenga,
Mozambique, a passenger and freight train collided and 196 people
were killed.
(SSFC, 5/26/02, p.A14)(SFC, 5/27/02, p.A7)
2002 Jul 27, In Lviv, Ukraine,
a fighter jet slammed onto the tarmac and sliced through a crowd
watching an air show, killing 85 people and injured 116.
(AP, 7/28/02)(WSJ, 8/8/02, p.A1)
2002 Sep 25-2002 Sep 26, Over
760 passengers and crew were believed to have perished when the
crowded MS Joola, a state-run Senegalese ferry, heaved to its side
shortly before midnight in a fierce storm off the coast of Gambia.
There were only 62 known survivors. The toll was later raised to
1,863 dead.
(SSFC, 9/29/02, p.A18)(WSJ, 9/30/02, p.A1)(AP,
2/3/03)(SFC, 3/24/06, p.A12)
2002 Sep 29, In Guatemala a bus
carrying at least 45 passengers plunged into the Selegua River, and
authorities feared that most of them drowned.
(AP, 9/30/02)
2002 Oct 29, In Vietnam a fire
believed to have started in a disco swept through a five-storey
commercial building in south Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City killing at
least 48 people.
(Reuters, 10/29/02)
2003 Jan 6, In Mexico a bus
with failing brakes swerved off a mountain highway and into a deep
ravine in Zacatecas state, killing 18 people and injuring 23.
(AP, 1/7/03)
2003 Dec 26, A 6.6 earthquake
devastated the southeastern Iranian city of Bam, 630 miles southeast
of the capital Tehran. It leveled more than half the city's houses
and its historic mud-brick fortress. At least 25,000 people were
killed and over 10,000 injured. Iran appealed for international help
and promised to waive visas for foreign relief workers.
(AP, 12/26/03)(AP, 12/27/03)(SFC, 12/30/03, p.A3)
2003 Dr. James Gee of the Univ.
of Wisconsin authored “What Video Games Have to Teach Us About
learning and Literacy.”
(Econ, 9/5/09, p.86)
2004 Feb 18, In Neyshabur,
northeastern Iran, a 51-car train, carrying fuel, fertilizer and
industrial chemicals, derailed and exploded. It rolled out of a
switchyard and eventually reach a speed of more than 90 mph before
it derailed, caught fire and exploded. The explosions destroyed five
villages killing at least 200 people and injuring hundreds more.
(AP, 2/19/04)(AP, 4/23/04)
2004 Apr 22, As many as 3,000
people were killed or injured when two trains carrying oil and
liquefied petroleum gas collided and exploded in a North Korean
train station.
(AP, 4/22/04)
2004 Apr 28, In Colombia a
construction crew's backhoe tumbled down a hillside onto a school
bus on the highway below, killing 21 children and two adults and
injuring 36 others.
(AP, 4/29/04)
2004 Jul 16, In Kumbakonam,
southern India, a short circuit ignited a thatched roof and raged
through the Lord Krishna Middle School, killing at least 88 children
and injuring more than 100. The children were trapped inside a
locked building.
(AP, 7/17/04)(SFC, 7/17/04, p.A3)
2004 Jul 22, In northwestern
Turkey a new high-speed passenger train derailed killing 36 people
and injuring 81 others.
(AP, 7/23/04)
2004 Jul 25, The death toll
from monsoon flooding in South Asia reached 944.
(AP, 7/26/04)
2004 Jul 28, Deaths from
monsoon rains across South Asia reached 1,238.
(AP, 7/28/04)
2004 Aug 1, In Paraguay a
fast-spreading fire killed 420 people. Survivors of the inferno in a
crowded supermarket on the outskirts of Asuncion said that locked
doors slowed their escape. In 2008 a father and son who owned the
supermarket were sentenced to prison for manslaughter and
endangerment. In 2009 Supreme Court voted 2-1 in favor of a sentence
of 12 years for Juan Pio Paiva and 10 years for his son Daniel
Paiva. In 2009 a court upheld a two-year prison sentence for
architect Bernardo Ismachowiez, designer of the supermarket.
(AP, 8/2/04)(AP, 8/6/04)(AP, 2/3/08)(AP,
8/6/09)(AP, 8/29/09)
2004 Nov 28, In central China
an explosion tore through a coal mine, sending smoke from air vents
and trapping at least 166 miners in tunnels and shafts below without
communications. The death toll was later confirmed at 166.
(AP, 12/1/04)(Econ, 12/4/04, p.43)
2004 Dec 26, The world's most
powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that
slammed into villages and seaside resorts across southern and
southeast Asia. The initial estimated death toll of 9,000 soon rose
to some 230,000 people in 14 countries. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake
was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2
temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964. The epicenter was
located 155 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh
province on Sumatra, and six miles under the seabed of the Indian
Ocean. In Indonesia at least 166,320 people were killed.
Bangladesh reported 2 killed; India: at least 9,691 deaths:
thousands were missing and possibly dead in India's remote Andaman
and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia: At least 101,318 people were killed
on Sumatra island and small islands off its coast. Kenya reported 1
killed. Malaysia: At least 68 people, including an unknown number of
foreign tourists, were dead. Myanmar: At least 90 people were
killed. Sri Lanka: At least 30,680 were killed in government and
rebel controlled areas. The Maldives, an archipelago of 1,190
low-lying coral islands and a tiny population of 280,000, at least
82 people were killed and missing. At least 42 islands were
flattened in the low-lying atoll nation. Somalia: At least 298 were
killed. Tanzania: At least 10 killed. Thailand: The confirmed death
toll for Thailand reached 5,322, but many suspected Myanmar migrants
were not counted.
(SFC, 12/28/04, p.A1)(AP, 12/30/04)(SSFC, 1/2/05,
p.A12)(AP, 1/7/05)(Econ, 1/22/05, p.41)(AP, 12/25/09)
2004 Dec 30, In Argentina a
flare lit during a rock concert ignited the foam ceiling of the
Cromagnon Republic nightclub in Buenos Aires packed with teenagers,
starting an inferno that killed 194 people. Omar Chaban, promoter
and owner of the club, later faced charges of manslaughter. In 2006
the Buenos Aires city council sacked Mayor Anibal Ibarra for failing
to root out a culture of bribery and bureaucratic sloth. In 2009
judges convicted the concert promoter, three city officials and a
band manager in the fire. The court absolved the Callejeros band of
criminal responsibility for the blaze caused by fans' fireworks.
(AP, 12/31/04)(AP, 12/30/05)(Econ, 3/11/06,
p.35)(AP, 8/20/09)
2005 Feb 14, A gas explosion in
China's northeast Sunjiawan mine killed 203 people in the deadliest
mining disaster reported since communist rule began in 1949.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2005 Aug 29, Hurricane Katrina
hit the Gulf Coast near Buras, La., as a Category 3 storm. Katrina
ripped two holes in the curved roof of the Louisiana Superdome,
letting in rain as thousands of storm refugees huddled inside. In
Mississippi many of the 13 floating casinos in Biloxi and Gulfport
smashed historic homes and buildings. The Grand Casino Biloxi
destroyed the historic Hotel Tivoli. Storm surges and winds from
Katrina unleashed at least 40 oil spills and some 193,000 barrels of
oil and other petrochemicals were driven across fragile marshy
ecosystems southeast of New Orleans. The death toll from Katrina
eventually reached at least 1,600. An estimated 300 Louisiana
residents died out of state; some 230 people perished in
Mississippi. Property damage estimates were in the hundreds of
billions of dollars.
(SFC, 9/6/05, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/23/05, p.A1)(WSJ,
3/21/06, p.A1)(AP, 8/29/06)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.36)
2005 Aug 29, In New Orleans 34
people died at a Tenet Healthcare hospital after Hurricane Katrina
knocked out power and the temperature inside the building rose to
more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). The
hospital’s windows couldn’t be opened. On July 22, 2011, a
judge approved a $25 million class-action settlement over the deaths
of the patients. The Dallas-based company settled 11 other cases
over Katrina.
(SFC, 7/23/11, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/4kbb8dp)
2006 Feb 3, An Egyptian
passenger ferry carrying 1,408 people, mostly Egyptian workers
returning from Saudi Arabia, sank in the Red Sea overnight. The
35-year-old ship, "Al-Salam Boccaccio 98," went down 40 miles off
the Egyptian port of Hurghada between midnight and 2 a.m. Rescue
boats picked up at least 362 survivors from the ferry that caught
fire and sank in the Red Sea, apparently so fast there was no time
for a distress signal. But more than 1,000 missing passengers and
crew were feared drowned. The report into the sinking found the ship
was overloaded and using forged documents to hide a shortage of
safety equipment. In 2008 an Egyptian court acquitted in absentia
Mamdouh Ismail, the owner of the ferry and his son, of negligence
and corruption. Ismail, is a member of parliament's upper house, and
his son Amr was a top executive in the ferry company. In 2009
Mamdouh Ismail was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and
negligence and sentenced to seven years in prison.
(AP, 2/3/06)(AP, 2/4/06)(AP, 4/19/06)(AP,
7/27/08)(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Feb 7, In Australia
searing temperatures and wind blasts created a firestorm that swept
across a swath of the country's Victoria state. On “Black Saturday”
some 2298 homes were destroyed with a death toll of 173. The town of
Marysville and several hamlets in the Kinglake district, both about
50 miles (100 km) north of Melbourne, were utterly devastated.
(AFP, 2/8/09)(Econ, 1/14/12, p.61)
2008 Apr 28, In eastern China a
high-speed passenger train jumped its tracks and slammed into
another train, killing 72 people and injuring 416 in China's worst
train accident in a decade.
(AP, 4/28/08)(AP, 7/24/11)
2008 May 3, A tropical cyclone
slammed into Myanmar's main city of Yangon, ripping off roofs,
felling trees and raising fears of major casualties. Within days the
death toll soared above 22,000 and more than 41,000 others were
missing as foreign countries mobilized to rush in aid after the
country's deadliest storm on record.
(AP, 5/4/08)(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 7, The international
relief effort for hundreds of thousands of Myanmar cyclone victims
picked up speed as India dispatched two planeloads of aid and
Myanmar authorized the UN to send its own air shipment.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 12, Myanmar state
television put the death toll for Cyclone Nargis at 31,938 with
29,770 people missing. The US White House said it was extending an
extra 13 million dollars in aid as the first US flight of emergency
supplies landed in the country.
(AP, 5/12/08)(SFC, 5/13/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 21, In the Philippines
the Princess of Stars, carrying 862 passengers and crew, ran aground
and capsized 3 km (2 miles) from Sibuyan island in the center of the
archipelago. Nearly 800 passengers were missing as Typhoon Fengshen
killed scores and left a trail of destruction across the
archipelago. Only 48 survivors of the ferry were found, including 28
rescued the next day.
(Reuters, 6/22/08)(AP, 6/23/08)(Econ, 6/28/08,
p.49)
2008 Sep 6, In Egypt massive
boulders fell from the towering Muqattam cliffs onto a shanty town
outside Cairo and buried dozens of homes. The death toll rose on a
daily basis and reached 103 on Sep 19. According to residents, there
could be up to 500 people buried under the hundreds of tons of rock
that fell. In 2010 a court convicted the Cairo deputy governor for
the rock slide that killed 119 people and sentenced him to five
years in prison. The court found Mahmoud Yassin and seven lesser
officials guilty of manslaughter.
(AP, 9/6/08)(AP, 9/13/08)(AP, 9/20/08)(AP,
5/26/10)
2009 Apr 29, In Tanzania huge
blasts rocked an ammunition dump at an army camp in the coastal city
of Dar es Salaam. More than a dozen people were killed.
(AP, 4/29/09)(SFC, 2/18/11, p.A2)
2009 Jun 5, In southwestern
China at least 26 people were buried when part of a mountain
collapsed in a massive landslide in a remote area of Wulong county
in Chongqing municipality. 74 people were missing, including 47
workers at an iron ore mine, 21 local residents, two telecom company
workers and four passers-by. 27 people died and dozens were hurt
when a packed commuter bus burst into flames and was destroyed
within minutes during the morning rush hour in the southwestern city
of Chengdu. Police later said a 62-year-old unemployed man set the
fire after carrying a bucket of gasoline onto the bus.
(AP, 6/5/09)(AP, 6/6/09)(AP, 7/3/09)
2009 Jun 5, In Mexico a
fast-moving fire killed 49 babies and toddlers at the ABC day care
in the city of Hermosillo, Sonora state, despite desperate attempts
of firefighters, who punched through the walls and fought their way
through flames to rescue babies, toddlers and others trapped inside.
No fire alarm or sprinkler system had gone off, according to
witnesses. One mother said a second door to the day care was bolted
shut and nobody could find the key. In 2011 federal police arrested
Arturo Leyva Lizarraga, a former government official, on homicide
and abuse of authority charges tied to a day care center fire.
(AP, 6/6/09)(AP, 6/7/09)(AP, 6/8/09)(AP,
6/23/09)(AP, 5/10/11)
2009 Aug 6, Rescue workers
searched for missing people after the Princess Ashika ferry,
carrying 149 passengers and crew, sank overnight off the coast of
Tonga. 93 people were missing and feared dead.
(SFC, 8/6/09, p.A2)(AP, 8/9/09)
2009 Aug 9, In southern Taiwan
Typhoon Morakot spawned a mudslide engulfing the mountain village of
Shiao Lin, burying up to 600 people. The official death toll from
Morakot stood at 14. Another 51, not including the people in Shiao
Lin.
(AP, 8/10/09)
2009 Aug 14, Taiwan's president
said floods and mudslides unleashed by Typhoon Morakot last weekend
have killed about 500 people on the island, as he called on rescue
crews to step up their efforts. Ma said the death toll includes 120
confirmed deaths, and about 380 people believed to be buried in the
debris of a landslide in Shiao Lin, the hardest-hit village.
(AP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 15, In Kuwait a fire
at a wedding tent killed 41 women and children consumed the
structure in a blazing inferno lasting just three minutes. A Kuwaiti
spokesman later said the fire was a criminal act by a perpetrator
motivated by personal reasons as 4 more victims died from their
wounds. Local newspapers said the bridegroom’s ex-wife was the
arsonist.
(AP, 8/16/09)(AP, 8/18/09)(SFC, 8/18/09, p.A4)
2009 Aug 17, In Russia powerful
explosion took place during repair work at the Sayano-Shushinskaya
hydroelectric plant in southern Siberia. The death toll soon reached
47 with 28 others missing and feared dead after an engine room was
suddenly flooded. The accident produced an oil spill and the slick
that floated down the Yenisei River.
(AP, 8/17/09)(AP, 8/18/09)(AP, 8/21/09)
2009 Aug 20, Italian customs
found a boat with five Eritrean survivors of what it called a
"shocking tragedy. Around 75 African migrants died in the
Mediterranean after their stranded boat ran out of food and water.
(Reuters, 8/21/09)
2009 Aug 28, In Indonesia the
overcrowded ferry Sari Mulia capsized in the Negara River in the
South Kalimantan province, leaving at least 19 people dead and 15
others missing.
(AP, 8/29/09)(AP, 8/30/09)
2009 Sep 5, The sightseeing
boat Ilinden, carrying 55 Bulgarian tourists, sank in Lake Ohrid on
Macedonia's western border, and 15 people drowned.
(AP, 9/5/09)(AFP, 9/6/09)
2009 Sep 6, In the southern
Philippines the Superferry 9, carrying nearly 1,000 passengers, sank
leaving at least 9 people dead. After rescue efforts one passenger
was left unaccounted.
(AFP, 9/6/09)(AP, 9/7/09)
2009 Sep 9, In Sierra Leone at
least 221 people, including many schoolchildren returning from
holidays, remained missing a day after the wooden Teh Teh ferry
capsized at sea. 39 people survived. 30 bodies were recovered and
all the missing were feared dead.
(AP, 9/10/09)(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 10, In India hundreds
of students, who were jammed into a narrow New Delhi school
staircase, panicked and set off a stampede that left five girls dead
and 31 other students injured. Mohammed Shahabuddin, a 12-year old
snack vendor, had to have his left leg amputated after Bihar state
railway police threw him out of a moving train when he failed to pay
them 10 rupees (20 cents) as a bribe. The boy had offered the
policemen five rupees, which was all the money he had.
(AP, 9/10/09)(AP, 9/11/09)
2009 Sep 14, In Pakistan at
least 18 women and girls were killed in a stampede which broke out
as charity workers were handing out free flour to the poor in a
crowded neighborhood of Pakistan's financial capital Karachi.
(AP, 9/15/09)
2009 Sep 23, In central India
an 820-foot (250m) chimney collapsed during bad weather killing at
least 26 people. More than 100 workers were feared dead at the site
in Korba, Chhattisgarh state, where the giant chimney came crashing
down on the plant's cafeteria as the workers had tea.
(AP, 9/24/09)(AFP, 9/24/09)
2009 Sep 29, A magnitude
8.0-8.3 earthquake struck about 120 miles south of the islands of
Samoa, which has about 180,000 people, and American Samoa, a US
territory of 65,000. Four tsunami waves 15 to 20 feet (4 to 6
meters) high roared ashore on American Samoa, reaching up to a mile
(1.5 kilometers) inland. At least 136 were killed in Samoa and at
least 32 on American Samoa and leaving dozens missing. Authorities
in Tonga, south of the Samoas, confirmed at least 9 dead.
(AP, 9/30/09)(AFP, 10/1/09)(AP, 10/5/09)
2009 Oct 2, In southern India
flash floods and heavy rains killed at least 172 people in the state
of Karnataka and 50 in neighboring Andhra Pradesh. One more person
was killed in the southern seaside resort state of Goa as heavy
rains resulted in the collapse of 250 houses. Fifty of the victims
drowned when a rescue boat capsized.
(AFP, 10/3/09)(AP, 10/4/09)(AP, 10/5/09)
2009 Oct 9, In the northern
Philippines driving rain on the heels of back-to-back storms
triggered dozens of landslides across, burying more than 160 people,
washing away villages and leaving almost an entire province under
water.
(AP, 10/9/09)
2009 Oct 16, In southern India
a blaze erupted at a fireworks warehouse in Pallipat near Chennai,
killing at least 32 people and injuring 10 others as millions of
Hindus prepared to celebrate Deepavali, the festival of lights.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Nov 21, In northern China
a gas explosion tore through the state-run Xinxing coal mine in
Heilongjiang province, killing at least 92 people and 16 missing as
rescuers worked hastily to save them.
(AP, 11/21/09)(AP, 11/22/09)
2009 Nov 22, Nearly 250 people
were pulled from the sea after the Dumai Express went down in heavy
rain and huge swells off Karimun island in the north of the
Indonesian archipelago. At least 29 people were killed.
(AFP, 11/22/09)
2009 Nov 25, In western
Democratic Republic of Congo at least 73 people were killed and
others missing after a logging boat sank in Lake Mai Ndombe in
Bandundu province.
(Reuters, 11/28/09)
2009 Nov 27, In southern
Bangladesh the MV Coco-4, a triple-deck ferry packed with hundreds
of travelers heading home for an Islamic festival, capsized on the
Tetulia River as passengers disembarked, leaving at least 77 dead
and dozens missing.
(AP, 11/28/09)(AFP, 11/30/09)
2009 Dec 4, In northern
Bangladesh an overcrowded passenger boat capsized after being hit by
a small ferry, leaving at least 46 people dead.
(AP, 12/4/09)
2009 Dec 5, In Russia a blaze
sparked by onstage fireworks tore through the Lame Horse nightclub
ceiling covered in decorative twigs and plastic sheeting, killing
136 people and critically injuring about 90 in the industrial city
of Perm in the Ural Mountains. It was the country’s deadliest fire
since the fall of the Soviet Union.
(AP, 12/5/09)(AP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 7, In China 8 children
died in a crush after someone stumbled while hundreds of children
leaving their evening classes raced down the narrow stairway closest
to their dormitory in Xiangxiang city, Hunan province.
(AP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 14, In Nigeria 23
people burned to death when a bus carrying mourners to a funeral
collided with a truck on a road in southwest Oyo state.
(AFP, 12/14/09)
2009 Dec 24, In southern India
police with bamboo batons clashed with crowds of protesters as
outrage over a delay in creating a new state (Telangana) erupted
into violent demonstrations in several cities in Andhra Pradesh.
Over 40 people were feared dead after the bridge under construction
over the Chambal river collapsed on the outskirts of Kota city in
western Rajasthan state. 12 bodies were recovered and 30 others
remained missing.
(AP, 12/24/09)(AFP, 12/25/09)(AP, 12/26/09)
2009 Dec 26, In the Philippines
a roll-on, roll-off ferry, carrying at least 88 people and nine
cargo trucks, sank in the late evening off Verde Island. 6 people
were confirmed dead and at least 22 were missing.
(AP, 12/27/09)
2010 Jan 1, In Brazil a
rain-loosened slab of hillside collapsed on 3 houses and an upscale
lodge after New Year celebrations at a resort on the island of Ilha
Grande near Rio de Janeiro, killing at least 26 people. On the
mainland, a torrent of reddish mud cascaded into the Carioca slum in
the nearby coastal city of Angra dos Reis, killing at least 18
people and reducing rickety shacks to rubble. 10 people died in Sao
Paulo state. 3 people died in Minas Gerais as heavy rains triggered
flooding and landslides. Nearly 80 other mudslides have been
reported throughout the region in recent days. Together with
flooding, they have killed at least 76 people.
(AP, 1/1/10)(AP, 1/2/10)(Reuters, 1/3/10)
2010 Feb 9, Afghan officials
said massive avalanches roaring down a mountain pass north of Kabul
may have killed more than 60 people, as rescuers evacuated about 400
injured victims.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, In South
Africa a fire raged through the Hope in Christ Home orphanage at
Newcastle in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal, killing 15
people, including 13 children.
(AFP, 2/9/10)
2010 Jan 12, A powerful 7.0
earthquake hit Haiti and crushed thousands of structures, from
schools and shacks to the National Palace. Thousands of people were
believed dead and untold numbers were trapped. An estimated 3
million people were in need of emergency aid. The quake left over
200,000 people dead. Some 4,500 prison inmates escaped during the
earthquake. By April they were terrorizing neighborhoods and
fighting turf battles. The UN later estimated 222,570 people were
killed and 300,572 injured.
(AP, 1/13/10)(SFC, 3/11/10, p.A2)(SFC, 4/8/10,
p.A2)(Econ, 3/19/11, p.46)
2010 Feb 18, In northern
Pakistan up to 37 people were feared dead after an avalanche slammed
into a remote mountain village in Kohistan district.
(AFP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 20, On Portugal’s
Madeira Islands torrential flash floods and mudslides killed at
least 42 people. 13 people remained missing.
(AP, 2/21/10)(AP, 2/22/10)(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Indonesia a
rain-triggered landslide at a tea plantation on the main island of
Java buried scores of workers. At least five people were confirmed
dead.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Mar 26, A South Korean
naval ship sank leaving 46 marines missing near Baengnyeong Island.
An explosion at the rear of the Cheonan shut down its engine, wiped
out power and caused the ship to sink a little over three hours
later. 58 of the crew of 104 were rescued.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Apr 6, In Brazil 14
straight hours of rain swamped Rio de Janeiro and killed at least
eight people in the city. 3 more died in Rio de Janeiro state. 5
were also are missing in a mudslide. The death toll eventually
reached 246.
(AP, 4/6/10)(AP, 4/9/10)(AP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 8, In Brazil
authorities said at least 200 people were buried and feared dead
under the latest landslide in the Morro Bumba slum in Niteroi,
neighboring Rio de Janeiro. 205 people were already known to have
died this week in slides triggered by the record rains.
(AP, 4/8/10)(AP, 4/9/10)
2010 Apr 14, In western China a
series of strong earthquakes struck a mountainous area of Tibet,
killing at least 1944 people and injuring more than 10,000, as
houses made of mud and wood collapsed. 5 days later 3 people were
pulled alive from the rubble.
(AP, 4/14/10)(AP, 4/15/10)(AP, 4/16/10)(AP,
4/19/10)
2010 Apr 14, In India a cyclone
packing winds of more than 100 mph (160 kph) demolished ten of
thousands of mud huts, killing at least 131 villagers in the
northeastern parts of West Bengal and Bihar states.
(AP, 4/14/10)(AP, 4/15/10)
2010 May 8, In western Siberia
2 explosions tore through the Raspadskaya mine just before midnight,
killing at least 66 workers and injuring 41 others. A further 24
people remained trapped in the mine, Russia's largest underground
coal mine, including rescue workers.
(AP, 5/9/10)(AP, 5/10/10)(AP, 5/11/10)(AP,
5/12/10)(AP, 5/13/10)
2010 May 14, In central India a
bus carrying wedding guests hit a high-tension electricity line,
killing 28 people on board, mostly women and children, who were on
their way back from the ceremony in the Mandla district of Madhya
Pradesh state.
(Reuters, 5/14/10)
2010 May 30, Authorities in
Central America struggled to clear roads of debris and reach cut-off
communities due to landslides and flooding triggered by the year's
first tropical storm. The death toll soon reached 205, including 172
people in Guatemala, with some 100 missing; in Honduras at least 18
deaths were linked to the storm; El Salvador President Mauricio
Funes warned that the danger had not yet passed and reported 10
deaths.
(AP, 5/30/10)(AP, 5/31/10)(AP, 6/1/10)(AP,
6/2/10)(AP, 6/6/10)
2010 Jun 3, In Bangladesh an
illegal chemical warehouse fuelled a toxic blaze that ripped through
one of Dhaka's most densely populated areas, killing at least 117
people.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 15, In southeastern
Bangladesh powerful landslides triggered by heavy rains killed at
least 53 people, striking a coastal area as people slept and burying
many alive inside their homes.
(AP, 6/15/10)(AP, 6/16/10)
2010 Jun 16, In China at least
90 people died and 50 were missing after torrential downpours in
southern China triggered heavy floods. The provinces of Fujian and
Sichuan, in the southeast and southwest respectively, as well as the
southern region of Guangxi were the hardest hit.
(AFP, 6/16/10)(AFP, 6/18/10)(AP, 6/19/10)
2010 Jun 20, China’s government
said major rivers have burst their banks in southern China,
triggering massive floods and forcing 860,000 to flee their homes.
Dozens were missing with more storms forecast. The death toll soon
rose to 211.
(AP, 6/20/10)(AP, 6/21/10)(AP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jun 21, In the Congo
Republic at least 76 people were killed and 745 injured after a
train accident in the southern part of the country.
(Reuters, 6/23/10)
2010 Jun 22, Brazilian
authorities said floods after days of driving rain have killed at
least 45 people in the northeast, and left 600 missing for and
another 120,000 people homeless.
(AP, 6/22/10)(AFP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jul 2, In eastern Congo a
fuel tanker overturned and burst into flames, sparking a massive
fire that killed at least 219 villagers and wounded more than 200 —
some of whom had rushed to siphon leaking liquid from the vehicle
illegally.
(AP, 7/3/10)(SSFC, 7/4/10, p.A5)
2010 Jul 24, In Germany a
stampede at the Love Parade techno music festival in Duisberg ended
with at least 19 young people dead and more than 300 injured. Within
days the death toll rose to 21 as more died from their injuries.
(Reuters,
7/25/10)(http://tinyurl.com/27m7e9l)(Reuters, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 27, In CongoDRC a boat
ferrying about 200 passengers to Kinshasa capsized after hitting a
rock. As many as 138 people were killed with 80 confirmed dead.
(Reuters, 7/29/10)
2010 Aug 2, In Louisiana 6
Shreveport teenagers wading in the shallows of the Red River drowned
in front of their horrified families after falling into deep water.
None of the teens or nearby adults could swim.
(AP, 8/3/10)
2010 Aug 5, In Missouri 2
people, a pickup driver and a 15-year-old student on a bus, were
killed and 38 others were injured in an accident on the interstate
highway near Gray Summit. In 2011 it was reported that a pickup
driver (19) was texting just before his pickup truck, two school
buses and a tractor truck collided in the deadly pileup.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2010 Aug 5, In Tanzania 20
school children were feared drowned and 20 rescued after a boat they
were traveling in capsized on the Tanzanian side of Lake Victoria.
(AP, 8/6/10)
2010 Aug 8, In China landslides
in the northwestern province of Gansu left at least 337 people dead
in the deadliest incident so far in the country's worst flooding in
a decade. More than 1,148 were missing.
(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 10, Pakistan’s
President Asif Ali Zardari returned to his flood-ravaged country,
where he faced a storm of criticism for visiting Europe as his
country was gripped by what his government called the nation's worst
natural disaster. The UN said the Pakistan’ government's estimate of
13.8 million people affected by the country's worst-ever floods
exceeded the combined total of three recent megadisasters, the 2004
Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti
earthquake.
(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 10, Rescuers in
mountainous Indian-controlled Kashmir raced to save dozens of
stranded foreign trekkers and find 500 people still missing in flash
floods that have killed 140.
(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 11, Chinese rescuers
raced against a potential new deluge in northwest Gansu province and
hurried to drain an unstable lake formed by the country’s worst
mudslides in decades. The death toll surged past 1,100.
(AFP, 8/11/10)
2010 Aug 13, In northwest China
new landslides killed 24 people and left 24 missing in Gansu
province as downpours threatened more devastation and made rescue
work nearly impossible in a region where more than 1,100 people have
died.
(AP, 8/13/10)
2010 Aug 15, UN chief Ban
Ki-moon urged the world to quicken aid for up to 20 million people
hit by Pakistan's worst humanitarian crisis as he flew in to visit
areas ravaged by record floods.
(AFP, 8/15/10)
2010 Aug 16, In northeast China
a massive explosion ripped through a fireworks factory, killing 19
workers, damaging nearby buildings and causing secondary blasts.
(AP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 16, In China at least
36 more people have died and 23 others were missing in fresh
flooding from torrential rains in Gansu province.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 18, In the Philippines
a packed passenger bus negotiating a downhill curve plunged off a
Philippine mountain highway into a 100-foot (30-meter) ravine,
killing 41 people.
(AP, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 19, The UN said more
than 4 million Pakistanis have been made homeless by nearly 3 weeks
of floods, making the critical task of securing greater amounts of
aid more urgent.
(Reuters, 8/19/10)
2010 Aug 21, About 150,000
Pakistanis were forced to move to higher ground over the last 24
hours as floodwaters from a freshly swollen Indus River submerged
dozens more towns and villages in the south. The floods have
affected about one-fifth of Pakistan's territory, straining its
civilian government as it also struggles against al-Qaida and
Taliban violence. At least 6 million people have been made homeless
and 20 million affected overall. The economic cost is expected to
run into billions of dollars.
(AP, 8/21/10)
2010 Aug 23, China’s state
media said flooding has forced the evacuation of more than a
quarter-million people in northern China along its border with North
Korea.
(AP, 8/23/10)
2010 Sep 4, In southern Congo
at least 200 people were feared dead after a boat engine caught fire
and led the vessel to overturn on the Kasai River. Survivors who
swam to safety said nearby fishermen refused to help drowning
passengers in the dark of night, instead looting the goods aboard
the burning vessel and beating people with oars. Earlier the same
day, a boat on a river in northwest Equateur Province hit a rock and
capsized. More than 70 people were believed dead among 100 estimated
passengers.
(AP, 9/5/10)(AP, 9/6/10)
2010 Sep 4, In Guatemala
torrential rains from a tropical depression caused mudslides killed
at least 48 people, most of them in separate disasters along the
same highway.
(AP, 9/5/10)(AP, 9/6/10)
2010 Sep 7, The UN said more
than 10 million people have been left without shelter in Pakistan's
floods for the past 6 weeks, in "one of the worst humanitarian
disasters" in UN history.
(AFP, 9/7/10)
2010 Sep 9, A massive
explosion, apparently triggered by a broken gas line, sent flames
roaring through San Bruno, a neighborhood near San Francisco, Ca.,
destroying 37 homes and badly damaged 8 others. At least 7 people
were killed and over 50 injured. On Sep 27 the death toll rose to 8
as another victim died of injuries from the blast.
(AP, 9/10/10)(SFC, 9/10/10, p.A1)(SFC, 9/11/10,
p.A1)(SSFC, 9/12/10, p.A1)(SFC, 9/23/10, p.C5)(SFC, 9/29/10, p.C4)
2010 Sep 27, In Colombia a
mudslide swept over people changing from one bus to another because
an earlier slide was blocking a mountain road, and at least 20
people were buried.
(AP, 9/27/10)
2010 Sep 28, In Mexico a
hillside collapsed on the rural community of Santa Maria de
Tlahuitoltepec, Oaxaca state. Although hundreds of people were
initially feared dead only 11 people were missing and likely dead.
(AP, 9/28/10)(AP, 9/29/10)(AP, 9/30/10)
2010 Sep 29, Jamaica was hit by
Tropical Storm Nicole causing flooding and mudslides that left at
least 5 people dead and 14 missing.
(SFC, 9/30/10, p.A2)(AP, 9/30/10)
2010 Sep 29, In Mexico a
landslide surged into a community in Chiapas state, killing 16
people and injuring 13, while another avalanche left three people
missing in a nearby town.
(AP, 9/30/10)
2010 Sep 30, In Mexico rescuers
found more bodies buried by earlier landslides, raising the death
toll from a series of slides in the south to at least 36. Another
landslide in the town of Villa Hidalgo Yalalag in Oaxaca state
buried an 80-year-old man and his 68-year-old wife.
(AFP, 9/30/10)(AP, 10/1/10)
2010 Oct 2, In central
Indonesia a train crashed into another parked at a railway station,
killing at least 36 people and injuring dozens, many seriously.
(AP, 10/2/10)
2010 Oct 4, In Hungary a
torrent of toxic red sludge from an alumina plant tore through
Kolontar and two other villages. The next day Hungary declared a
state of emergency in three counties. After some days 9 people were
reported killed and some 150 injured.
(Reuters, 10/5/10)(AFP, 10/8/10)(AP,
10/11/10)(Econ, 10/16/10, p.63)
2010 Oct 4, In Indonesia heavy
rain unleashed flash floods and mudslides, killing at least 83
people in West Papua province's village of Wasior. Rescuers
struggled to reach the area.
(AP, 10/5/10)(AP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 6, Hungary scrambled
to contain a toxic mud spill that left four people dead and more
than 100 injured in what is being described as an ecological
catastrophe. The spill raised fears that pollution leeching from it
could reach the Danube River, which courses through Croatia, Serbia,
Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine before flowing into the Black Sea.
(AFP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 6, In Indonesia
helicopters dropped food to isolated villages and security forces
helped clear debris and search for survivors as the number of people
killed by floods and landslides across Asia climbed to nearly 110.
Three-quarters of the deaths were in eastern Indonesia. In Vietnam
11 bodies were recovered in the worst-hit province of Quang Binh,
where authorities were also searching for five sailors from a sunken
barge. At least seven other bodies were found in Ha Tinh province,
five in Nghe An and three in Quang Tri. On China's nearby island
province of Hainan, seven straight days of heavy rains left two
people missing and forced 64,000 to evacuate.
(AP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 7, In Vietnam the
death toll from vicious rains nearly doubled to 48 after disaster
officials were finally able to access areas that had been cut off by
high waters. Another 23 people remained missing as villagers started
returning to areas where the water was receding.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 9, In central Vietnam
the death toll in devastating floods rose to 62 as authorities
rushed aid to about 100,000 people facing food shortages.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 10, In Bangladesh a
speeding bus veered off the road and into the water. Many of some 50
passengers swam to safety after the crash. 11 bodies were soon
recovered and the search continued for more.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 11, Chinese state
media reported that more than 440,000 people have been evacuated in
Hainan after the heaviest rains for decades inundated 90 percent of
the Chinese island in the South China Sea.
(AFP, 10/11/10)
2010 Oct 12, In central Poland
a van crammed with farm workers crashed head-on into a truck after
apparently trying to overtake another vehicle in dense fog, killing
all 18 people on board.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In eastern Ukraine
a train crashed into a crowded bus, killing 42 people on the bus,
including two children, and injuring nearly a dozen others. PM
Mykola Azarov ordered his government to pay the family of each of
the dead victims 100,000 hryvna ($12,600). He also instructed
transport officials to install automated crossing gates at all the
nation's railway crossings to prevent cars, buses and trucks from
ignoring the siren.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 18, In Mexico a bus
has crashed into the back of a trailer truck and caught fire,
killing 19 people outside the city of Queretaro.
(AP, 10/18/10)
2010 Oct 18, In Vietnam 20
people on a bus were swept away by strong currents from a flooded
river. They were presumed dead. Another 17 managed to save
themselves by swimming or clinging to trees or power poles.
(AP, 10/18/10)
2010 Oct 19, The UN said that
377 people had died in flooding in central and west Africa, with
nearly 1.5 million people affected since the start of the rainy
season in June. The highest toll was in Nigeria with 118, followed
by Ghana (52), Sudan (50), Benin (43), Chad (24), Mauritania (21),
Burkina Faso (16), Cameroon (13), Gambia (12), with other countries
reporting less than 10 dead.
(AFP, 10/19/10)
2010 Oct 22, In eastern
Indonesia the Tersanjung, a small passenger ship, sank off the cape
of Watumanuk on Flores island. It was reportedly carrying 66 people.
44 people were rescued and 22 remained missing.
(AP, 10/22/10)(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 22, In Vietnam
disaster officials said the death toll from severe flooding in four
central provinces had climbed to 75, including 14 victims from a bus
swept off a road by strong currents, with six passengers still
missing.
(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 27, President Karzai
said Afghanistan will extend a deadline for private security firms
to disband through early next year in a face-saving compromise that
could preserve foreign reconstruction projects worth billions of
dollars. A roof collapsed at an Afghan wedding party, killing
more than 40 women and children in Warchi village of Jalga district
of Baghlan province. The international military coalition said nine
insurgents were killed in a battle in the southern province.
(AP, 10/27/10)(AFP, 10/27/10)
2010 Oct 27, In Indonesia
helicopters with emergency supplies finally landed on the remote
islands slammed by a tsunami that killed at least 272 people.
Elsewhere in the archipelago the toll from a volcanic eruption rose
to 30, including the mountain's spiritual caretaker.
(AP, 10/27/10)
2010 Oct 30, In eastern India
rescuers battled to find survivors after a ferry overcrowded with
Muslim pilgrims capsized and sank in the Hooghly River near the Bay
of Bengal. The 60 person capacity boat was carrying around 224
people. After 3 days 69 bodies were recovered.
(AFP, 10/30/10)(AFP, 11/1/10)(SFC, 11/3/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 30, In Indonesia
clouds of gray ash rumbled down the slopes of Mount Merapi in its
most powerful eruption of a deadly week, prompting soldiers to force
reluctant villagers to evacuate amid fears of a larger blast as the
death toll reached 36. Storms again prevented aid deliveries to
increasingly desperate survivors of a tsunami, including a teenage
girl with an open chest wound, that killed 413 people in the
Mentawai islands. The number of missing dropped by half to 163 as
searchers discovered survivors who had fled to the hills.
(AP, 10/30/10)
2010 Nov 4, In Costa Rica a
rain-sodden hillside collapsed on homes in the suburb of San Antonio
de Escazu, killing at least 20 people, many as they slept. At least
14 people were missing.
(AP, 11/5/10)
2010 Nov 5, In Indonesia
searing gas avalanched down the Mount Merapi volcano with a
thunderous roar, torching houses and trees and incinerating
villagers as they fled. About 70 more people were killed raising the
death toll to 122.
(AP, 11/5/10)(Econ, 11/13/10, p.50)
2010 Nov 8, In south-central
Congo at least 42 people were killed when a truck overturned on the
country's poorly maintained roads. 16 children were among the dead
from the crash in Kasai-Oriental province.
(AP, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 13, In California a
gold Honda Accord tried to pass a group of motorcycles and caused a
Dodge car to lose control on two-lane Route 98, a desert highway
near Ocotillo, triggering a crash that killed five people and
injured six others. Authorities were looking for the driver of the
Accord. The driver of the dodge was arrested on suspicion of driving
under the influence.
(AP, 11/14/10)(SFC, 11/15/10, p.A8)
2010 Nov 15, In China a fire
engulfed a Shanghai high-rise building, killing 58 and injuring 70,
as panicked residents fled and thick smoke spread over China's
commercial hub. Police the next day detained 8 welders on suspicion
of accidentally starting the fire. 3 government officials were later
detained for allowing illegal construction activities at the site.
(AP, 11/15/10)(AP, 11/16/10)(SFC, 11/17/10,
p.A3)(SFC, 12/25/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 21, In Indonesia the
death toll from the Mount Merapi volcano rose to 304 after more
victims succumbed to severe burns and illnesses.
(SFC, 11/22/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 22, In Cambodia a
stampede by thousands of festival-goers left at least 378 dead and
hundreds injured. A panic-stricken crowd, celebrating the end of the
rainy season on an island in a river, tried to flee over a narrow
bridge in the capital of Phnom Penh.
(AP, 11/23/10)
2010 Nov 23, In northwestern
Pakistan the concrete cover of a sewage tank collapsed during a
funeral, causing 14 people in Jhor village to plunge to their death.
(AP, 11/23/10)
2010 Nov 24, In New Zealand a
second explosion occurred in the Pike River mine, almost exactly
five days after the first blast there. All 29 workers missing
underground were believed to have died after a second explosion.
(SFC, 11/24/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 26, In South Africa
lightning and a storm killed seven people and injured 67 at a
Christmas party at a nursery school in KwaZulu Natal.
(AFP, 11/27/10)
2010 Nov 30, In Morocco a bus
carrying workers plunged off a road into a ravine during heavy rain,
killing at least 20 passengers and injuring three others.
(AFP, 11/30/10)
2010 Dec 2, In northern Israel
at least 41 people were killed in a massive forest fire. Most of the
dead were prison guards on board a bus, who had been trying to
evacuate prisoners from a facility in the forest.
(AP, 12/2/10)(AFP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 2, Venezuelan
authorities say flooding and landslides unleashed by torrential
rains have killed at least 30 people and forced thousands from their
homes.
(AP, 11/30/10)(AP, 12/2/10)
2010 Dec 3, A Chinese cargo
ship with 24 Chinese passengers and crew members sank off the coast
of the Philippines. At least 14 crewmen were rescued and 10 were
missing.
(www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6B30U120101204)(SFC, 12/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Dec 3, In Iraq 24 people,
including 22 Iranian pilgrims visiting Shiite holy sites, died when
two buses collided head-on south of Baghdad.
(AP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 4, In Haiti 17 people
died when a group taxi slammed into a truck on a blind curve in the
southern peninsula town of Aquin.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, In southwest China
at least 22 people died and one person was severely burned when a
spreading grassland fire swept through a mountainous Tibetan region.
(Reuters, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 5, Colombian officials
said a landslide following weeks of drenching rains has buried more
than 50 homes in the northwest. Rescue workers soon recovered 47
bodies. As many as 80 people remained missing and feared dead.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 12/6/10)(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 5, In southern Italy a
speeding car plowed head-on into a group of cyclists, killing eight
of them. Police said the driver had been smoking marijuana.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 6, A motorboat
overloaded with mostly Haitian migrants slammed into a reef off the
British Virgin Islands and capsized as it tried to evade
authorities. At least 8 people were killed, including two infants.
25 people were rescued. Police in St. Maarten arrested three
Haitians and said they will be charged with human smuggling in the
case.
(AP, 12/7/10)(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 7, In central China an
explosion at a coal mine killed 26 miners who were working despite
an order to halt production, while a mine tunnel collapse elsewhere
left four dead in the latest accidents to strike the country's
mining industry.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 8, In eastern
Bangladesh a speeding train slammed into another moving slowly
through a station, killing as many as 19 people and injuring scores
more.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 8, In Chile a fire set
off by rioting inmates in a severely overcrowded prison killed at
least 81 prisoners and seriously injured at least 14 others at the
San Miguel prison south of Santiago. In March, 2011, a Chilean court
ordered three prison guards held on negligent homicide charges for
the deaths of 66 of the 81 inmates. 5 senior officers were charged
with manslaughter and ordered to remain in the country.
(AP, 12/8/10)(AFP, 3/28/11)
2010 Dec 13, Egyptian officials
said rain and sandstorms that battered the country at the weekend
killed at least 31 people, adding the toll could rise as rescue
workers were still sifting through two collapsed buildings.
(AFP, 12/13/10)
2010 Dec 13, A South Korean
fishing boat sank in the Antarctic Ocean's frigid waters, with 22
sailors feared killed in the open sea where vessels trawl for
deep-water fish. 20 survivors were rescued shortly after the 614-ton
vessel went down some 1,400 miles (2,250 km) south of New Zealand.
(AP, 12/13/10)
2010 Dec 14, In Bangladesh a
devastating blaze raced through a garment factory near the capital,
killing at least 29 people and injuring more than 100.
(AP, 12/14/10)(AP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 15, In violent seas
off Australia’s Christmas Island at least 48 refugees, thought to be
from Iran and Iraq, died after their wooden boat shattered before
horrified witnesses. 42 survivors, including 9 children were
rescued. On January 24, 2011, Australian authorities charged three
Indonesian men with people smuggling. Iranian-born Ali Khorram
Heydarkhani (40) was detained by Indonesian authorities on January
25 but only sent to Australia after overstaying his visa. On May 12,
2011, he was charged in Sydney with offences relating to the
boatpeople disaster.
(AFP, 12/15/10)(AP, 12/16/10)(AP, 12/20/10)(AP,
1/25/11)(AFP, 5/12/11)
2010 Dec 16, A
Vietnam-registered fishing boat, named Phu Tan, capsized off the
Chinese coast leaving 27 fishermen missing.
(AP, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 18, In northeastern
Bangladesh a boat packed with passengers capsized on the Surma
River. Rescuers the next day said at least 37 people died and 18
more were missing.
(AP, 12/19/10)
2010 Dec 19, In Mexico a
massive oil pipeline explosion lay waste to parts of in San Martin
Texmelucan, incinerating people, cars, houses and trees as gushing
crude turned streets into flaming rivers. At least 29 people were
killed, 14 of them children. Authorities blamed oil thieves after
investigators found a hole in the pipeline and equipment for
extracting crude. On Jan 10 a police officer died of his injuries
bringing the death toll to 30.
(AP, 12/19/10)(AP, 12/22/10)(AP, 1/10/11)
2010 Dec 19, In the northern
Philippines a fire rapidly swept through a 5-storey budget hotel in
Tuguegarao burning to death 15 people, several crammed in bathrooms
where they fled in panic. Nine of the victims were nursing students
in town to take a licensing exam. The death toll rose to 16 after
one person died in a hospital
(AP, 12/19/10)(AP, 12/20/10)
2010 Dec 20, In Malaysia a
double-decker bus carrying Thai tourists overturned on a highway,
killing 28 people on their way back from a hill resort.
(AP, 12/20/10)
2010 Dec 21, In Zimbabwe 9
people died and 25 were injured when a speeding bus slammed into a
truck in Harare. 3 infants were among the dead.
(AP, 12/22/10)
2010 Dec 23, In southwestern
Colombia a landslide caused by weeks of rains buried 4-5 houses
killing at least 12 people. The government and Red Cross said the
year's heavy rains have killed at least 312 people in the country.
(AP, 12/24/10)(Econ, 1/15/11, p.40)
2010 Dec 24, In Ecuador an
overcrowded bus plunged into a 1,100-foot (350m) ravine leaving 38
people dead and 46 injured.
(AP, 12/25/10)
2010 Dec 25, In northern India
a bus collided head-on with a van that was carrying mourners
returning from a funeral, killing 35 people.
(AP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 27, In China 14
children died when the vehicle taking them to school plunged into a
creek in the central province of Hunan. In Guizhou province 7 people
died and 15 were injured after a truck crashed into a gas station in
fog, causing a pileup involving more than 100 cars.
(AP, 12/27/10)
2010 Dec 28, In New Orleans,
La., a fire in an abandoned warehouse killed 8 homeless squatters.
(SFC, 12/29/10, p.A5)
2010 Dec 29, In Egypt flood
waters caused by torrential rains earlier this week swept a bus
packed with 77 schoolgirls and their teachers off a highway in the
country's south, ending in the tragic death of 15 people, most of
them students. The last two survivors were pulled out of the waters
in the early hours Dec 31.
(AP, 12/31/10)
2011 Jan 2, In the Philippines
a bus has collided with a passenger jeep in a province south of
Manila, killing 7 members of a family who were returning home from a
Christmas vacation. Landslides and floods, after days of heavy rain,
killed at least 17 people including 8 children.
(AP, 1/2/11)(AP, 1/3/11)(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 2, Off southern Yemen
at least one boat of African migrants capsized and dozens were
feared drowned. The boat capsized near the Bab al-Mandab strait
which links the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. 5 migrants survived.
(AFP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 5, Indian officials
said near-freezing temperatures and icy Himalayan winds have killed
dozens of people in northern India over the past two weeks and
forced schools to close in the capital. A sightseeing bus overturned
and plunged into a gorge, killing 22 Indian tourists and injuring 12
others who were visiting Mussoorie at the foot of the Himalayas. The
driver fled the scene but was arrested the next day.
(AP, 1/5/11)(AP, 1/6/11)
2011 Jan 12, Brazilian
authorities in Rio de Janeiro said at least 350 people died in three
towns north of Rio following early morning mudslides.
(AP, 1/12/11)(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 14, In San Bernadino,
Ca., 3 people were electrocuted, one after the other, as a wife and
son attempted to rescue Steven Vego (43), each coming in contact
with a 12,000-volt power line that had fallen over in their
backyard.
(AP, 1/15/11)
2011 Jan 14, In Brazil grieving
mudslide survivors carried the bodies of loved ones for hours down
washed-out mountainsides as the death toll hit 514.
(AP, 1/14/11)
2011 Jan 14, In southern India
more 102 pilgrims were killed and 44 injured in a stampede following
a religious festival in Kerala state.
(AP, 1/14/11)(AP, 1/15/11)
2011 Jan 14, Sri Lanka’s
Disaster Management Center said 27 people have died in the floods
and mudslides, including four whose deaths were reported today. 12
more were missing. The UN said it will appeal for emergency flood
aid for Sri Lanka.
(AP, 1/14/11)(AP, 1/15/11)
2011 Jan 15, In Hungary three
young women died in a stampede at the West-Balkan nightclub in
downtown Budapest. Thousands of people were caught up in the
stampede and the victims may have been trampled by the rushing
crowd.
(AP, 1/16/11)
2011 Jan 15, In central South
Africa 20 people died when a burst tire sent a passenger bus out of
control and caused it to veer into a muddy stream.
(AP, 1/15/11)
2011 Jan 15, Sri Lanka’s
Disaster Management Center said 11 more people were reported dead,
raising the death toll to 38 with four others missing and 51
injured.
(AP, 1/15/11)
2011 Jan 16, In Brazil
survivors of mudslides that have killed 611 carried food, water and
blankets to friends, neighbors and relatives still stranded in
remote, stricken villages.
(AP, 1/16/11)
2011 Jan 16, Greek authorities
said a ship carrying a reported 263 migrants has sunk west of the
island of Corfu and 22 passengers are missing. The passengers in the
ship were rescued by a Dutch cargo ship about seven hours after the
call that alerted the coast guard. The ship's captain reported he
took 241 people on board and that the Italy-bound Hasan Reis sank.
(AP, 1/16/11)
2011 Jan 17, Brazil's army on
sent 700 soldiers to help throw a lifeline to desperate
neighborhoods that have been cut off from food, water or help in
recovering bodies since mudslides killed at least 700 people.
(AP, 1/17/11)(Reuters, 1/17/11)(AP, 1/18/11)
2011 Jan 17, South Africa's
Cooperative Governance Ministry said at least 40 people have been
killed or gone missing following heavy rains from late December
through most of January and that thousands of homes in neighboring
Mozambique have been destroyed.
(Reuters, 1/17/11)
2011 Jan 18, In Australia the
city of Horsham, Victoria state, resembled a lake after the Wimmera
River overflowed its banks and bisected the community before
starting to recede. The weekslong flooding crisis has left 30 people
dead.
(AP, 1/18/11)
2011 Jan 18, Philippine
disaster authorities said stormy weather since late December has
killed 56 people and left at least 19 missing, mostly fishermen lost
in rough seas.
(AP, 1/18/11)
2011 Jan 21, Brazilian
officials said about 400 people were registered as missing after
mudslides last week that killed at least 806 people.
(AP, 1/21/11)(Reuters, 1/23/11)
2011 Jan 27, In the Philippines
a temporary elevator at a building construction site in Manila
plunged 25 floors, killing 10 workers.
(AP, 1/27/11)
2011 Jan 28, In Bolivia the
raging Molle Punku River swept at least 30 people to their deaths
after swamping a bus and a truck that tried to cross.
(AP, 1/30/11)
2011 Jan 28, Two Indonesian
passenger trains crashed killing 3 people in West Java province. A
crowded ferry burst into flames off Java, killing at least 18 people
and sending hundreds to the hospital, many in critical condition.
(AP, 1/28/11)(AP, 1/31/11)
2011 Feb 3, In the Philippines
President Benigno Aquino III ordered a logging moratorium in the
country, blaming devastating floods on unmitigated logging and
deforestation. A weeklong downpour culminated in raging flash floods
that surged through the streets of Jolo's coastal provincial
capital, sweeping away stilt houses and damaging hundreds of homes
killing at least 5 people. Disaster officials said at least 9 other
people have died in floods elsewhere in the Philippines this week,
adding to more than 70 lives lost in heavy rainfall between late
December and the end of January.
(AP, 2/4/11)
2011 Feb 13, Fifty illegal
Somali migrants and a Tanzanian captain died after a ship sank off
the coast of northern Mozambique. Mozambican marines sent 89 Somali
and Ethiopian survivors to a refugee camp which holds about 3,000
illegal migrants.
(AP, 2/16/11)
2011 Feb 17, In Tanzania an
ammunition depot exploded in Dar Es Salaam killing at least 25
people and sent thousands into a stadium for safety.
(SFC, 2/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 20, In Estonia 8
disabled children (7-16) and 2 adults (20-21) were killed in an
orphanage fire in the coastal town of Haapsalu. The orphanage was
built in 1996 with help from Swedish and Finnish donations.
(AP, 2/20/11)(AP, 2/21/11)
2011 Feb 21, In Mali a stampede
at a football stadium in Bamako killed 35 people. Thousands had
gathered there for a blessing by a well-known Imam.
(SFC, 2/23/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 22, Christchurch, New
Zealand, lay in ruins after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake toppled tall
buildings and churches. The earthquake left at least 166 dead,
including 21 Chinese students. The earthquake also caused some 30
million tons of ice to break off from New Zealand's biggest glacier.
The final death toll was later estimated at about 240. On Feb 3
rescuers officially gave up hope of finding more survivors. On May
16 nine final victims of the earthquake were declared dead, ending
an agonizing wait for families of people whose remains have never
been identified in the wreckage.
(AFP, 2/23/11)(AP, 2/24/11)(AFP, 2/25/11)(AP,
3/4/11)(AP, 3/5/11)(AP, 5/16/11)
2011 Feb 24, In Texas a fire at
a Houston home used for daycare killed 4 children. Jessica Tata
(22), accused of leaving the children unattended while a stovetop
burner was on, was later charged with reckless injury to a child.
She fled to her native Nicaragua.
(www.click2houston.com/news/26995237/detail.html)(AP, 3/1/11)
2011 Feb 27, In Brazil at least
16 people were electrocuted when a power line fell atop a packed
pre-Carnival street parade in the town of Bandeira do Sul in Minas
Gerais state.
(AP, 2/28/11)
2011 Mar 4, In Cambodia a
speeding truck crashed into a tour bus in the southwest, leaving at
least 20 dead and eight seriously injured.
(AP, 3/4/11)
2011 Mar 5, In Brazil a
passenger bus collided head-on with a lumber truck in the southern
state of Santa Catarina, killing at least 25 people. More than 20
were seriously injured.
(AP, 3/5/11)
2011 Mar 8, In central
Pennsylvania a farmhouse fire killed 7 of 8 children of Theodore and
Janelle Clouse. A propane heater was suspected as the cause.
(SFC, 3/10/11, p.A8)
2011 Mar 11, A ferocious
tsunami spawned by an 8.9 earthquake, one of the largest ever
recorded, slammed Japan's eastern coast, killing hundreds of people
as it swept away boats, cars and homes while widespread fires burned
out of control. At least 574 people were killed including 74
elementary school students and 10 teachers at the Okawa primary
school. Estimates put the toll as high as 1300. At least 10,000
people were missing. Japan declared states of emergency for five
nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling
ability in the aftermath of the earthquake. The quake (the
fourth-largest recorded since 1900) was caused when the Pacific
tectonic plate dove under the North American plate, which shifted
Eastern Japan towards North America by about 13 feet.
(AP, 3/11/11)(AP,
3/12/11)(http://tinyurl.com/5sphrbr)(SFC, 1/25/12, p.A3)
2011 Mar 12, In NYC 13 people
died when a bus returning from a casino flipped onto its side on a
major highway in the Bronx and was sliced in half by the support
pole for a large sign.
(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 12, In China 19-21
people were killed in a collision between a passenger bus and a
truck in Wanlang township on the outskirts of Baishan city in
northeast Jilin province.
(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 13, People across a
devastated swath of Japan suffered for a third day without water,
electricity and proper food, as the country grappled with the
enormity of a massive earthquake and tsunami that left more than
10,000 people dead in one area alone. Japanese officials raised
their estimate of the quake's magnitude to 9.0. Japan also fought to
avert a meltdown at three earthquake-crippled nuclear reactors.
(AP, 3/13/11)(Reuters, 3/13/11)
2011 Mar 17, Japan tried
high-pressure water cannons, fire trucks and even helicopters that
dropped batches of seawater in increasingly frantic attempts to cool
an overheated nuclear complex as US officials warned the situation
was deteriorating. More than 5,300 people were officially listed as
dead, but officials believed the toll will climb to well over
10,000.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 18, The Japanese
government acknowledged that it was overwhelmed by the scale of last
week's twin natural disasters. The earthquake and tsunami has now
officially left more than 6,900 dead and more than 10,700
missing. Japanese engineers conceded that burying a crippled
nuclear plant in sand and concrete may be a last resort to prevent a
catastrophic radiation release. Authorities raised the rating of the
nuclear crisis to a Level 5 from a Level 4 on a seven-point
international scale. Radiation at the crippled Fukushima No.2
nuclear reactor was recorded at 500 microsieverts per hour.
(AP, 3/18/11)(Reuters, 3/18/11)(Reuters, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 19, In northeastern
India a fire raged through a refugee camp in Nifingpara camp in
Tripura state, killing 21 people and injuring about 100. The camp
was home to some 5,000 families from the minority Bru ethnic group,
which in 1997 fled alleged persecution in neighboring Mizoram state.
(AP, 3/19/11)
2011 Mar 19, One of Japan's six
tsunami-crippled nuclear reactors appeared to stabilize but the
country suffered another blow after discovering traces of radiation
in food and water from near the stricken power plant. Crews fighting
to cool reactors managed to connect a power line. Japan halted sales
of food products near Fukushima because of contamination by a
radioactive element which can pose a short-term health risk. Japan's
police agency said 7,348 are dead and 10,947 are missing after last
week's earthquake and tsunami.
(AP, 3/19/11)(AFP, 3/19/11)(Reuters, 3/19/11)
2011 Mar 20, Japan’s ministry
official Yoshifumi Kaji said that tests found excess amounts of
radioactive elements on canola and chrysanthemum greens, in addition
to spinach. He said the areas where the tainted produce was found
included three prefectures that previously had not recorded such
contamination. Tokyo Electric Power Company said two of the six
reactor units are now safely under control after their fuel storage
pools cooled down. The toll of dead or missing from Japan's worst
natural disaster in almost a century neared 21,000.
(AP, 3/20/11)(Reuters, 3/20/11)(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 22, Japanese crews
connected all six reactors at the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi
nuclear plant to the electrical grid, a day after smoke triggered an
evacuation from the facility. But the plant's operator cautioned
that pumps, motors and other equipment must be checked before the
power can be turned on. It's likely to be days or weeks before
cooling systems can resume functioning. A Japanese nuclear safety
official said a pool for storing spent fuel at the crippled nuclear
plant is heating up, with temperatures around the boiling point.
Police said nearly 9,100 people are dead after an earthquake and
tsunami with almost 13,800 are missing.
(AP, 3/22/11)
2011 Mar 23, Japan said the
cost of rebuilding the country after its biggest recorded earthquake
could be as much as 25 trillion yen ($309 billion). A spike in
radiation levels in Tokyo tap water, twice the level acceptable for
infants, spurred new fears about food safety. Rising smoke forced
another evacuation of workers trying to stabilize the Fukushima
nuclear plant. Police said nearly 9,500 people are dead after an
earthquake and tsunami with over 16,000 still missing.
(AFP, 3/23/11)(AP, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 25, Japanese officials
said a suspected breach in Unit 3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima
nuclear plant could mean more serious radioactive contamination, as
PM Naoto Kan called the country's ongoing fight to stabilize the
plant "very grave and serious." The official death toll jumped past
10,000. With the cleanup and recovery operations continuing and more
than 17,400 listed as missing, the final number of dead was expected
to surpass 18,000.
(AP, 3/25/11)
2011 Mar 25, A boat left
Tripoli carrying 72 people. It drifted for more than two weeks after
it ran out of fuel, water and food. Only 9 people survived. The
survivors were arrested by pro-Gadhafi forces after their boat came
ashore in Libya, but managed to flee again.
(AFP, 5/13/11)(AP, 5/13/11)
2011 Mar 26, In Switzerland 7
people were missing after an avalanche swept away 11 people near the
southern border with Italy.
(AP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 27, In Japan emergency
workers struggling to pump contaminated water from the stricken
Fukushima nuclear complex fled from one of the troubled reactors
after reporting a huge increase in radioactivity, a spike that
officials later apologetically said was inaccurate. Police said the
death toll from earthquake and tsunami stood at 10,668, with more
than 16,574 people missing. Hundreds of thousands of people remained
homeless.
(AP, 3/27/11)
2011 Mar 28, In southern Yemen
a powerful blast at a factory making explosives and weapons killed
at least 110 people after the facility was briefly taken over by
Islamic militants and then looted by residents of the area.
(AP, 3/28/11)(SFC, 3/29/11, p.A3)
2011 Apr 1, In central Nigeria
a fuel tanker overturned at an army checkpoint, sparking an inferno
in which 17 vehicles were engulfed in flames. Some 50 people were
killed.
(AFP, 4/2/11)
2011 Apr 4, Myanmar reported
that nearly 700 fishermen were missing after a three-day burst of
unseasonable storms that ripped apart rickety fishing boats in the
Andaman Sea. The March 14-17 storms had whipped up 70 mph (112 kph)
winds.
(AP, 4/4/11)
2011 Apr 6, Between 130 and 250
people were missing and at least 15 appeared to be dead after a boat
carrying refugees from Libya capsized south of Sicily.
(Reuters, 4/6/11)
2011 Apr 6, The United Nations
said 62 people have been killed and thousands forced from their
homes since the start of the year by flooding in northern Namibia.
More rains in northern Namibia were forecast for the coming days.
(AP, 4/6/11)
2011 Apr 8, In Hawaii a storage
bunker exploded killing 5 workers as they dismantled pyrotechnics at
Donaldson Enterprises in Honolulu.
(SFC, 4/11/11, p.A4)(SFC, 4/15/11, p.A8)
2011 Apr 13, In Colombia a
river swollen with heavy rains swept a passenger bus off a highway
in the mountainous northwest, killing at least 16 people and leaving
4 others missing.
(AP, 4/14/11)
2011 Apr 17, A furious storm
system that kicked up tornadoes, flash floods and hail as big as
softballs has left at least 40 people dead on a rampage that
stretched for days as it barreled from Oklahoma to North Carolina
and Virginia. 11 people were confirmed dead in Bertie County, NC,
bringing the state's death toll to at least 18 people. Authorities
have said 7 died in Arkansas; 7 in Alabama; 2 in Oklahoma; one in
Mississippi and at least 5 in Virginia.
(AP, 4/17/11)
2011 Apr 18, In CongoDRC at
least 23 people died when a truck crashed into an area where young
girls were collecting water outside the eastern city of Goma.
(AP, 4/19/11)
2011 Apr 21, In eastern
Bangladesh a crowded ferry carrying about 100 passengers capsized in
a river, leaving at least 28 people dead and more feared missing.
(AP, 4/21/11)
2011 Apr 22, In the Philippines
at least 21 people were missing and three confirmed dead after a
night-time landslide ravaged a gold mining village in a mountainous
area of Mindanao.
(AP, 4/22/11)
2011 Apr 25, In China an
illegal garment shop in southern Beijing caught fire, killing 17
migrant workers and their family members who may not have been able
to escape the four-story building because of bars on the windows.
(AP, 4/25/11)
2011 Apr 25, In eastern Congo a
boat owner said 72 people are missing after his boat capsized on
Lake Kivu, possibly because of bad weather and high winds.
(AP, 4/25/11)
2011 Apr 25, Japan sent nearly
25,000 soldiers to recover bodies killed in last month’s earthquake
and tsunami. Some 14,300 were confirmed dead with 12,000 still
missing.
(SFC, 4/25/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 27, Dozens of
tornadoes spawned by a powerful storm system wiped out neighborhoods
across a wide swath of the South, killing at least 214 people in the
deadliest outbreak in nearly 40 years. Alabama had 131 deaths, 32 in
Mississippi, 29 in Tennessee, 13 in Georgia, 8 in Virginia and one
in Kentucky.
(AP, 4/28/11)
2011 Apr 29, An Egyptian bus
fell off a ferry into the Nile River and at least 22 people drowned
in the accident.
(AFP, 4/29/11)
2011 May 1, In northeastern
China a fire at a hotel killed 10 people and injured 35, in Tonghua,
an industrial city by the North Korean border. Arson was suspected
at the hotel owned by the Nasdaq-listed Chinese budget chain Home
Inns & Hotels Management Inc.
(AFP, 5/1/11)(AP, 5/2/11)
2011 May 2, In CongoDRC at
least 106 people were missing after an overloaded boat capsized
overnight on the Kasai River.
(Reuters, 5/3/11)(SFC, 5/3/11, p.AA2)
2011 May 3, In Mexico a gas
explosion that ripped through a primitive, vertical-shaft coal mine
trapping 14 miners in San Juan de Sabinas, Coahuila state. Over the
next few days 9 bodies were recovered and 5 remained missing.
(AP, 5/4/11)(AP, 5/6/11)
2011 May 3, In central Nepal a
crowded bus skidded off a mountain road, killing at least 12 people
and injuring many others.
(AP, 5/3/11)
2011 May 4, In western Nepal a
bus veered off a mountain road, killing at least 16 people and
injuring 20 others in the country's second serious bus accident in
two days.
(AP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 6, A ship carrying up
to 600 migrants trying to flee Libya sank off the coast of the North
African country. At least three other boats that departed Libya in
late March have disappeared, bringing to 800 the number of people
believed to have perished at sea trying to reach European shores.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 6, In Poland one miner
and one rescuer were already confirmed dead after methane ignited
some 2,700 feet (820 meters) underground at the Krupinski mine near
Katowice. The body of a missing rescuer was found on May 12,
bringing the death toll to 3.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 7, In Rwanda a bus
crash outside the capital of Kigali left 16 passengers dead.
(AFP, 5/8/11)
2011 May 8, In Kenya four
children were killed and one seriously injured after playing with
unexploded ordnance they found near a military training ground near
the village of Ole Maroroi.
(AP, 5/8/11)
2011 May 8, In Togo seven boats
capsized in a storm on lake Togo, leaving at least 36 people dead.
(AFP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 15, In Illinois a fire
in an apartment building in Aurora, a suburb of Chicago, killed 6
people, including 3 children.
(SFC, 5/16/11, p.A4)
2011 May 18, In the Gulf of
Mexico off the Mississippi coast the Eurus London, a 660-foot
commercial cargo boat, and the Sandy Point, a 163-foot fishing boat,
collided about eight miles south of Gulfport between Cat Island and
Ship Island around 8:50 p.m. The Sandy Point sank after the
collision with 16 people aboard. 3 Sandy Point crew members drowned
in the accident.
(AP, 5/19/11)(AP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 20, Mexican federal
police captured Gilberto Barragan Balderas (41), a leading member of
the Gulf drug cartel, at what appeared to have been his birthday
party. In Zacatecas state at least 10 people were killed in a
gunbattle apparently involving the Zetas and a rival front of gangs
known as the "United Cartels." In the north a fire killed 14 inmates
at a prison in the town of Apodaca, Nuevo Leon state. Police in the
Pacific coast state of Guerrero reported they found the decapitated
bodies of four men in the township of Tecpan de Galeana.
(AP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 20, In southern
Vietnam a tour boat cruising the Saigon River to celebrate a
3-year-old's birthday capsized during a violent storm, killing the
boy, four other children and 10 adults.
(AP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 21, In Malaysia a
landslide left 15 boys and one adult dead at an orphanage for ethnic
Malay Muslim boys in a village in central Selangor state. 9 people
survived.
(AP, 5/21/11)(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 22, A massive tornado
that tore a 6-mile path across southwestern Missouri killed at least
117 people as it slammed into the city of Joplin leaving a forest of
splintered tree trunks behind where entire neighborhoods once stood.
The National Weather Service said it was the single deadliest
twister in the past 60 years. In June death toll reached 154.
(AP, 5/23/11)(AP, 5/24/11)(Reuters, 6/5/11)(SSFC,
6/19/11, p.A8)
2011 May 22, In Brazil a boat
carrying more than 100 passengers sank in a lake in Rio de Janeiro.
Rescue workers said a baby was dead and seven people were missing.
{Brazil, Tragedy}
(AP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 25, The death toll
from the May 22 tornado that savaged Joplin, Missouri, rose to 125.
A violent storm system across a wide swath of the Midwest and South
spawned tornadoes and powerful winds. 9 people were killed in
Oklahoma, 2 in Kansas and 4 in Arkansas.
(Reuters, 5/25/11)
2011 May 27, In northern
Pakistan a bus slid off a mountain road and plunged 200 feet deep
into a swollen river, and at least 25 people on board were believed
to have died.
(AP, 5/27/11)
2011 May 28, The death toll
from the May 22 tornado in Joplin, Missouri, rose to 139. State
officials said 100 people were still missing.
(AP, 5/29/11)
2011 May 30, In India a
would-be groom and several relatives going to a wedding were among
the 28 people killed when a wooden bridge collapsed near Hayo, Assam
state, and sent a bus crashing into a lake in the remote northeast.
(AP, 5/31/11)
2011 Jun 1, In Massachusetts at
least two late-afternoon tornadoes shocked emergency officials with
their suddenness and violence. At least 3 people were killed in the
state's first tornado-related deaths in 16 years.
(AP, 6/2/11)
2011 Jun 1, Tunisia's coast
guard launched operations to rescue would-be immigrants trapped on a
fishing boat that stalled off the country's coast. The boat was
believed to have set sail from Libya and was en route to Italy with
an estimated 800 would-be immigrants. At least 583 of the estimated
800 people on board survived the sinking.
(AP, 6/1/11)(AP, 6/2/11)(AP, 6/3/11)(SFC, 6/6/11,
p.A2)
2011 Jun 2, In Britain an
explosion at a Chevron oil refinery in Pembroke, Wales, killed four
contractors.
(SFC, 6/3/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun
5, Officials in Joplin, MO, revised the death toll from May 22’s
severe tornado, increasing the number to 141.
(Reuters, 6/5/11)
2011 Jun 10, The death toll
from the tornado in Joplin, Missouri, has risen to 151. A number of
survivors were now returning to the hospital suffering from severe
fungal infections, called zygomycosis, in their wounds.
(AP, 6/10/11)
2011
Jun 13, At a photo opportunity in Hessen, Germany, a quick-thinking
pilot of the Goodyear Blimp saved lives as he lost his own in a
fiery crash. Pilot Mike Nerandzic was in the air allowing
journalists to take pictures for a road safety campaign when the
blimp began to experience problems. Nerandzic flew low enough for
journalists in the blimp to escape, but then the blimp burst into
flames; the pilot managed to direct it away from onlookers and
camera crews before it crashed, killing him.
(Yahoo News, 6/14/11)
2011 Jun 24, In Nevada a
tractor-trailer slammed into an Amtrak’s California Zephyr train on
Highway 95 killing at least 6 people including rig driver Lawrence
Valli II and a train conductor.
(SFC, 6/25/11, p.A1)(SFC, 6/27/11, p.A1)(SFC,
6/28/11, p.A1)
2011 Jun 24, In CongoDRC 19
people were believed dead after a boat capsized overnight on Lake
Albert.
(AP, 6/27/11)
2011 Jun 26, In Bolivia a bus
ran off a foggy mountain road, killing at least 28 people.
(AFP, 6/27/11)
2011 Jun 26, An English climber
found the bodies of six mountaineers in the French Alps who appeared
to have died after a fall caused by an avalanche of snow and stones.
(AFP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 26, In South Africa a
head-on collision between two mini-bus taxis on a rural road in the
northern province of Limpopo killed 15 people and seriously injured
10.
(AFP, 6/27/11)
2011 Jun 27, In Haiti high
waves flipped the ferry over after it left La Gonave about 50 miles
(80 km) west of Port-au-Prince. 5 people died, 7 people were
missing, and five people were rescued.
(AP, 6/28/11)
2011 Jun 28, In northeastern
Nigeria lightning strikes in Gombe and Yobe states killed eight men,
four women and three children.
(AP, 6/29/11)
2011 Jun 28, In Uganda 18
students and a teacher died after lightning struck their school in
the country's midwest. In the past few weeks, lightning strikes
around the country have killed at least 34 people.
(AP, 6/29/11)
2011 Jun 29, In the southern
Philippines flashfloods left at least 25 people dead, mostly
children. Another 15 people were missing.
(SSFC, 7/3/11, p.A4)
2011 Jun 30, India’s media
reported that at least 17 infants have died in the last 48 hours at
the government-run B.C. Roy Hospital for Children in Kolkata, West
Bengal. In 2006, 22 infants died in three days at the same hospital
because of prematurity or acute forms of either meningitis,
encephalitis or septicemia.
(AP, 6/30/11)
2011 Jul 1, In Mexico remnants
of Tropical Storm Arlene continued dumping rain over the country's
central highlands. 22 deaths due to the storm were soon confirmed.
(AP, 7/2/11)(AP, 7/5/11)
2011 Jul 2, China suffered two
mining accidents that left three workers dead and 42 trapped
underground. The cave-in and flood occurred in the Guangxi region of
Guizhou province.
(AFP, 7/2/11)(SFC, 7/4/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 3, The Erik, a
100-foot (32-meter) tourist fishing boat, capsized about 60 miles
(100 km) south of the Baja California port of San Felipe. A US
tourist died and 7 US tourists were missing along with one Mexican
crew member.
(AP, 7/4/11)
2011 Jul 3, In Uganda at least
19 people were reported missing after their boat capsized on the
Ugandan side of Lake Albert.
(AFP, 7/5/11)
2011 Jul 5, In Nigeria 11
people were killed and 30 rescued when a four-storey building
collapsed in the central business district of Lagos.
(AFP, 7/6/11)(AFP, 7/16/11)
2011 Jul 5, A boat caught fire
of Sudan’s northeastern coast and almost 200 African migrants, on
their way to Saudi Arabia, were feared drowned. 3 migrants were
rescued.
(SFC, 7/6/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 7, In China 4 miners
were killed in a gas explosion in a mine in the western-most
Xinjiang region. The death toll in a mine that flooded on July 2 in
Guangxi province rose to four, with 18 still trapped. In eastern
Shandong province, the number of miners trapped in a coal mine in
Zaozhuang city dropped to 28 following a fire the previous evening.
23 miners remained trapped in a coal mine in southwest Guizhou
province that also flooded on July 2.
(AFP, 7/7/11)
2011 Jul 7, In northern India a
train hit a stopped bus at a railway crossing, killing at least 35
people returning from a wedding party in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 7/7/11)
2011 Jul 8, In India heavy
monsoon rains caused a stone wall to collapse, killing 10
construction workers, on the outskirts of Mumbai.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 10, In the Republic of
Congo 7 people died as security forces failed to control a stampede
outside the Felix Eboue stadium in Brazzaville, the venue for the
8th Pan-African Music Festival (Fespam).
(AFP, 7/11/11)
2011 Jul 10, In Honduras a bus
crash near the Copan archaeological ruin killed 10 people and
injured 25. Among the dead were two Americans, a Canadian, three
Salvadorans and three Hondurans. Another victim has yet to be
identified.
(AP, 7/11/11)
2011 Jul 10, In northern India
rescuers searched through the wreckage of a packed express train for
people trapped inside after it derailed in Uttar Pradesh state,
killing 68 people and injuring 239 others.
(AP, 7/10/11)(AP, 7/11/11)
2011 Jul 10, In Russia a
55-year-old double-decker boat, called Bulgaria, sank on the Volga
River in the Tatarstan region, killing at least 100 people with 29
missing. A total of 208 people are believed to have sailed on the
boat. Officials said it was overloaded when it sank.
(AP, 7/10/11)(AP, 7/11/11)(AP, 7/13/11)
2011 Jul 10, In western
Ukraine a fire tore through a home for the elderly, killing 16
people in the village of Bile.
(AP, 7/10/11)
2011 Jul 10, The head of the UN
refugee agency said that drought-ridden Somalia is the "worst
humanitarian disaster" in the world. The World Food Program
estimated that 10 million people already need humanitarian aid. More
than 380,000 refugees had moved into Kenya’s Dabaab refugee camp.
(AP, 7/10/11)
2011 Jul 11, In southeastern
Bangladesh a vehicle packed with schoolchildren returning home from
a soccer tournament crashed into a canal, killing 44 students.
(AP, 7/11/11)(AP, 7/12/11)
2011 Jul 11, In Cyprus a
massive explosion ripped through a naval base after a brush fire
detonated gunpowder stored in containers, killing 13 people,
wounding 62. The Vasilikos power station was destroyed taking out
half the country’s electricity supply. Defense Minister Costas
Papacostas and the country's top military official, National Guard
chief Brig. Gen. Petros Tsalikides, resigned over the incident.
(AP, 7/11/11)(AP, 7/15/11)(Econ, 8/6/11, p.63)
2011 Jul 11, In Nigeria
numerous roads and highways were flooded following the heavy
downpour which a day earlier and continued in Lagos, a city of some
15 million people. At least 29 people died from flooding in Katsina
and Lagos. An explosive went off under a van as its driver slowed
down at a military checkpoint in the city of Maiduguri. 3 people
were killed.
(AFP, 7/11/11)(AP, 7/12/11)
2011 Jul 13, In Salem, NY, 4
people were killed in a blast that destroyed a 2-story house. A 5th
person, a baby girl, died the next day. A propane gas leak was
suspected.
(SFC, 7/15/11, p.A7)
2011 Jul 22, In China a fire on
an overcrowded bus carrying flammable materials killed 41 passengers
in Xinyang, Hunan province.
(AFP, 7/22/11)
2011 Jul 23, In eastern China a
crash involving two high-speed trains in Wenzhou city killed 40
people with 171 others injured. Rail officials later admitted that a
Chinese-made signaling system was to blame and said the company that
built it has apologized. 3 days after the crash legal authorities
ordered lawyers not to take on cases from the families of victims.
On Dec 28 a government report found 54 officials responsible for the
crash.
(AP, 7/24/11)(AFP, 7/30/11)(AFP, 8/11/11)(Econ,
8/6/11, p.34)(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Jul 26, In Haiti a
sailboat that sank off the country's northern coast killing at least
12 people. Police rescued at least 19 people, but 21 passengers
remained missing.
(AP, 7/29/11)
2011 Jul 27, In the Philippines
heavy rains and floods battered the northeast for a third day,
swamping homes of about a half million people. Tropical Storm
Nock-ten was expected to blow out of the country to the South China
Sea by July 28 after cutting through the heart of Luzon Island. The
death toll reached 52 with 27 still missing.
(AP, 7/27/11)(AFP, 7/31/11)
2011 Jul 27, In South Korea
walls of mud buried 10 college students sleeping in a resort cabin
and flash floods submerged the streets and subway stations in Seoul,
killing at least 32 people in the country’s heaviest rains this
year.
(AP, 7/27/11)
2011 Jul 28, In CongoDRC at
least 50 people drowned and some 35 are reported missing after a
boat accident on the Tshuapa river in the northwest.
(AFP, 7/29/11)
2011 Jul 29, In eastern Ukraine
a pre-dawn methane explosion at the notoriously dangerous
Suhodilska-Eastern mine in the Luhansk region killed 20 workers.
Hours later an elevator used to transport miners and equipment into
and out of the Bazhanova mine in the eastern Donetsk region
collapsed, killing 7 workers. 10 miners all told remained missing.
(AP, 7/29/11)(AP, 7/30/11)
2011 Jul 31, In Russia an
overloaded motor boat crashed into the docked Oka barge on the
Moscow River in pre-dawn darkness, killing nine of the 16 people on
board.
(AP, 7/31/11)
2011 Jul 31, In northern
Zimbabwe 19 people were reported killed when the commuter bus they
were traveling in lost a wheel and veered off the road in the town
of Mvurwi.
(AFP, 7/31/11)
2011 Aug 1, Italian officials
said 25 African migrants trying to reach Italy from Libya died in
the hold of a rickety boat so packed with people that the migrants
could not get out as they struggled to breathe.
(AP, 8/1/11)
2011 Aug 2, In Sudan a heavy
rain storm in West Darfur caused two buildings housing Sudanese
soldiers to collapse, killing 20 and injuring another 30.
(AFP, 8/3/11)
2011 Aug 2, In Zimbabwe at
least 14 people were killed after a minibus crashed 120 miles east
of Harare, the second deadly accident involving an overcrowded bus
in the southern African country in recent days.
(AP, 8/3/11)
2011 Aug 3, The drought and
famine in Somalia have killed more than 29,000 children under the
age of 5, according to US estimates, the first time such a precise
death toll has been released related to the Horn of Africa crisis.
(AP, 8/4/11)
2011 Aug 9, A Comorian shuttle
boat, the Madjiriha, sank killing 60 people off the coast of the
Indian Ocean island nation the Comoros.
(AP, 8/10/11)
2011 Aug 13, In Indiana a wind
gust toppled a stage at the state fair in Indianapolis killing 5
people and injuring dozens of fans waiting for the country band
Sugarland to perform. A 6th person died of her injuries on Aug 19.
(SFC, 8/15/11, p.A4)(SFC, 8/20/11, p.A6)
2011 Aug 16, In southern Nepal
an overcrowded boat carrying at least 35 people capsized in the
rain-swollen Kamala river. At least 20 people were missing.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 20, In southern
Afghanistan a passenger bus careened off a road, killing 35 people.
A string of insurgent attacks across the country killed five people.
(AP, 8/20/11)
2011 Aug 23, In China at least
15 people were killed when a blaze ripped through a dormitory
building belonging to a ceramics factory in the Shengfeng Ceramics
Factory in Foshan city.
(AFP, 8/23/11)
2011 Aug 27, In Iraq at least
25 people, all but one of them women and children, were killed when
a bus caught fire after being hit by a car in the northern city of
Kirkuk.
(AFP, 8/27/11)
2011 Aug 28, A Nigerian
emergency management agency spokesman said heavy rains that caused a
dam to overflow in the southwestern and led to houses being
submerged has killed 23 people and displaced thousands. Most of the
victims were children who drowned in the southwestern city of
Ibadan.
(AP, 8/28/11)(AP, 8/29/11)
2011 Aug 29, In eastern
Uganda landslides killed at least 29 people, including children
buried in their homes in Mabono village. Two weeks ago seven people
were killed by landslides in the northeastern Karamoja region.
(AP, 8/29/11)
2011 Aug 31, In western Myanmar
7 people, including 2 children, were killed when a World War II bomb
they found in a river exploded in Rakhine state.
(AP, 9/1/11)
2011 Sep 4, In Japan record
rain and mudslides from powerful Typhoon Talas left at least 37
people dead as the storm moved slowly northward past the country's
western coast. Over 50 others remained missing.
(AP, 9/4/11)(AFP, 9/5/11)
2011 Sep 5, A Pakistani relief
official said monsoon rains have killed 136 people since Aug 12 and
destroyed crops and houses in the flood-prone south of the country.
(AP, 9/5/11)
2011 Sep 9, In southern China
12 people, including 9 schoolchildren, died when a ferry carrying 50
people capsized in a river in Shaoyang city, Hunan province. The
ferry, designed to carry 14, sank after it cut across dredging
cables that appeared to then become wrapped around its propeller.
(AFP, 9/10/11)(AFP, 9/11/11)
2011 Sep 10, The Tanzania
ferry, M.V. Spice Islanders, overcrowded and carrying over 800
people sank in deep sea between the mainland and Pemba Island,
leaving at least 240 people dead. Some 600 people were rescued.
(AP, 9/10/11)(AP, 9/11/11)
2011 Sep 12, In Kenya a leaking
gasoline pipeline in Nairobi exploded, turning part of a slum into
an inferno in which at least 61 people were killed and more than 100
hurt.
(AP, 9/12/11)
2011 Sep 13, In
Indian-administered Kashmir at least 22 people were killed and 18
others injured when an overcrowded passenger minibus plunged into a
deep gorge.
(AFP, 9/13/11)
2011 Sep 16, In Reno, Nevada, a
World War II-era P-51 Mustang fighter plane competing in an event
described as a car race in the sky suddenly pitched upward, rolled
and did a nose-dive toward a crowded grandstand. 9 people were
killed and more than 60 injured. Pilot Jimmy Leeward (74) was among
those killed. A 10th victim died on Sep 19.
(AP, 9/17/11)(AP, 9/18/11)(SFC, 9/20/11, p.A6)
2011 Sep 17, In southwestern
China a crowded tourist bus overturned on a mountainous road,
killing seven people and injuring 30 others in Sichuan province. In
the northwest a landslide caused by heavy rain plowed into two small
factories, killing at least 10 people and leaving 22 others missing
in Shaanxi province.
(AP, 9/17/11)(AP, 9/18/11)
2011 Sep 18, The UN made an
emergency appeal for funding for Pakistan. Monsoon rains since early
August have killed more than 220 people, damaged or destroyed some
665,000 homes and displaced more than 1.8 million people in the
southern Sindh province.
(AP, 9/19/11)
2011 Sep 21, Twenty aid
agencies warned that drought and famine-blighted Somalia is at a
"turning point" as conditions decline with hundreds of thousands
more people likely to die in coming months.
(AFP, 9/21/11)
2011 Sep 22, In west Nepal a
landslide buried workers building a canal in a mountain village,
killing at least four people and leaving several people missing.
(AP, 9/22/11)
2011 Sep 25, In CongoDRC 19
people died when a truck crashed while carrying goods and people 180
km outside Kinshasa.
(AP, 9/25/11)
2011 Sep 25, In India 5 young
men traveling on top of an overnight train in Rajasthan state were
killed when they slammed into a bridge.
(AFP, 9/25/11)
2011 Sep 27, Indian air force
helicopters dropped food parcels and hundreds of boats shuttled
stranded people to safer ground as surging floodwaters hit eastern
India. 5 people were missing in addition to the 27 killed in Orissa
state since Sep 23. Flooding also killed at least 44 since Sep 23 in
northern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states.
(AP, 9/27/11)
2011 Sep 28, In France a fire
in an abandoned building, set for demolition in the city-owned
building in the Paris suburb of Pantin, killed six suspected illegal
immigrants.
(AP, 9/28/11)
2011 Oct 3, In Nigeria a tanker
truck collided with a 16-seat minibus along the Damaturu-Potiskum
road in Yobe state. 11 people were killed.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 5, A Cambodia disaster
official said the worst floods in over a decade have killed 167
people, as efforts intensified to provide aid to tens of thousands
of families.
(AFP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 11, Thailand workers
raced to complete three critical flood walls with only one or two
days to go before the already swollen river that winds through the
capital bursts its banks. Nationwide flooding has already killed
nearly 270 people. A preliminary estimate by the central bank showed
economic losses from flooding that began in late July range from
baht 60 billion to baht 80 billion ($1.9 billion to $2.6 billion).
(AP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 9, In South Sudan an
anti-tank mine reportedly blew up a civilian bus killing 20 people,
including four children, in central Unity state.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 14, Heavy rains
generated by a low-pressure system hammered Central America for a
third day. Mudslides and swollen rivers have already killed 36
people. At least 21 people have been killed in Guatemala, 6 in
Honduras, and 4 in Nicaragua.
(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 15, Flooding in
Cambodia was reported to have killed at least 247 people as China
began delivering the first of some $7.8 million in flood relief aid.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 15, Thailand PM
Yingluck in a radio address called current flooding "the worst in
Thai history." The government said the floods, which have killed 297
people, are the worst to hit the Southeast Asian kingdom in half a
century.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 20, Heavy rains
generated by a low-pressure system hammered Central America for 10
days. Mudslides and swollen rivers killed at least 105 people
including 38 in Guatemala, 34 in El Salvador, 15 in Honduras, 13 in
Nicaragua and 5 in Costa Rica.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, Iran reported that
13 divers, part of a team installing an underwater oil pipeline,
were inside a pressurized diving chamber when their Koosha-1 ship
sank in the Persian Gulf in stormy seas. The 7 Indians, 5 Iranians
and one Ukrainian had about 72 hours of oxygen. 8 of the 13 divers
were reported dead on Oct 23.
(AP, 10/22/11)(AP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 23, A powerful
7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey, collapsing about 45
buildings. It was estimated that up to 1,000 people could have been
killed. The worst damage was caused to the town of Ercis, in the
mountainous eastern province of Van where 80 multi-story buildings
collapsed with people trapped in 40 of them. By Oct 30 the death
toll reached 596 with some 2500 injured and thousands homeless.
(AP, 10/23/11)(AP, 10/24/11)(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 27, In Indiana 7
people in a minivan full of relatives were killed when their vehicle
hit a deer and then was slammed from behind by a semitrailer about
10 miles east of South Bend.
(SFC, 10/29/11, p.A5)
2011 Oct 27, In Thailand
thousands of Bangkok residents flocked to bus, rail and air
terminals while heavy traffic snaked out of the sprawling Thai
capital in an exodus from a mass of approaching floodwater. The
flooding has left more than 370 people dead and millions of homes
and livelihoods damaged.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 29, In northeast India
a foot bridge spanning the Kameng River collapsed. Arunachal Pradesh
state police said 30 people were feared drowned.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Nov 2, In Argentina a bus
crash killed six schoolgirls and two teachers and injured 35 people.
Witnesses reported that the driver of a bus carrying students and
teachers was listening to music over earphones when he crossed in
front of a train. The driver jumped from the bus to save himself and
left his passengers behind.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 2, The Thai government
said the flood disaster has now killed 427 people, an increase of 42
from the figure reported a day earlier. While drowning was the most
common cause of death, dozens have also been electrocuted. Suspected
Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand killed six civilians in a
bomb attack on their vehicle in the south.
(AFP, 11/2/11)(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 3, Chinese rescuers
began battling against the clock to save coal miners trapped
underground in Henan province after a sudden explosion of rocks
killed 8 of their colleagues. The rock burst in Henan happened
moments after a 2.9 magnitude earthquake shook Sanmenxia city, where
the mine is located. 52 miners were rescued over the next 2 days.
Day later 2 miners died from their wounds raising the death toll to
10.
(AP, 11/4/11)(AP, 11/5/11)(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 5, In northwest
Colombia a landslide caused by heavy rains left at least 29 people
dead and 20-40 more missing in the city of Manizales, Caldas state.
(AP, 11/5/11)(AP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 7, In Puerto Rico
eight shackled prisoners drowned after a van they were being
transported in was engulfed by muddy floodwaters in the northern
coastal city of Arecibo. On Nov 10 prosecutors charged prison guard
Hector Cruz Santiago with eight counts of negligent homicide over
the drowning deaths of the inmates.
(AP, 11/7/11)(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 8, In northern India a
stampede killed 16 Hindu pilgrims and injured about 50 during a
religious ceremony on the banks of the Ganges River at Haridwar in
Uttrakhand state.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 10, In China hundreds
of rescuers took turns descending into an illegally operated coal
mine to search for Chinese miners trapped by a gas leak that killed
34 others at the Sizhuang Coal Mine in Qujing city in Yunnan. 9
remained missing.
(AP, 11/10/11)(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 10, In St. Lucia a
minibus carrying mourners from a funeral plunged off a cliff into
the ocean leaving 16 people dead and one person missing.
(AP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 12, In Iran an
accidental explosion at a Revolutionary Guard ammunition depot west
of Tehran killed at least 27 soldiers.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 16, In western China
an overloaded school minibus crashed head-on with a truck, killing
21 people including 19 kindergarten children on their way to class
in Gansu province.
(AP, 11/16/11)(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 18, In Australia 4
people died as fires ravaged a nursing home in Sydney's suburban
Quakers Hill neighborhood. A 5th died the next day and Nurse Roger
Dean (35), who said he rescued patients from a fire, was charged
with murder.
(AP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 19, Thailand's Premier
Yingluck Shinawatra declared central Bangkok safe from the kingdom's
devastating floods, as the death toll passed 600 and President
Barack Obama vowed the US will give whatever help it can.
(AFP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 20, In India a fire
blazed through a makeshift tent in east Delhi where eunuchs, a
community of castrated men, transvestites and transsexuals, had
gathered to honor deceased friends. 15 people were killed.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 26, In central
Indonesia a busy bridge collapsed in East Kalimantan province,
killing at least 4 people and injuring 17 others as a bus, cars and
motorcycles crashed into the Mahakam river. 40 people were missing.
(AP, 11/26/11)(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Dec 3, In Brazil a
tractor-trailer slammed into a bus carrying sugarcane cutters,
killing at least 33 people and injuring 13 others in the
northeastern state of Bahia.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 9, In India at least
89 people were killed when a fire engulfed patients at a hospital in
the city of Kolkata. Police arrested 6 hospital officials on charges
of culpable homicide.
(AFP, 12/9/11)(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 10, In central
Pakistan at least 13 people, including three children, were killed
and another 15 injured when a road collision led to a gas cylinder
explosion.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, In central South
Africa the driver of an overloaded van lost control, veered into the
oncoming lane and collided with a truck, leaving 30 people dead.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 11, Christopher Artes
(25) and Medeana Hendershot (22), were found dead under a mound of
coal at a Florida power plant. The young couple shared a passion for
illegally hopping freight trains and traveling the country without a
set plan.
{Florida, Tragedy, USA}
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 12, In eastern China a
school bus taking primary students home slipped off a country road
into an irrigation ditch, killing 15 children in Jiangsu province.
(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, In Nigeria a
boat capsized carrying as many as 55 people going from Eagle
Island to Mgbuodohia in Rivers state. At least 30 people died. 14
others were feared dead.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 14, In NYC a woman was
killed in a freak elevator mishap at a Madison Avenue office
building. The woman was stepping onto the elevator on the first
floor when either her foot or leg became caught in the closing
doors. The car then rose abruptly, dragging her body into the shaft
and killing her.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 17, Tropical storm
Washi whipped the southern Philippines, unleashing mammoth floods
across vast areas that left 440 people dead and nearly 200 missing.
(AP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 17, An overcrowded
ship of asylum seekers sank off the island of Java. Indonesian
rescuers battled high waves as they searched for survivors. Nearly
250 people fleeing economic and political hardship in Afghanistan,
Iraq, Iran and Turkey were trying to reach Australia in search of a
better life when their fiberglass ship broke apart. Only 47 people
survived.
(AP, 12/18/11)(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 18, In the southern
Philippines rescuers struggled to help survivors and a ravaged city
prepared for a mass burial as the death toll from devastating flash
floods rose past 650. Some 900 people were missing.
(AFP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 18, Russia’s Kolskaya
oil drilling platform capsized and later sank amid fierce storms off
the coast of Sakhalin Island, plunging dozens of workers into the
churning, icy waters. Four were confirmed dead and 49 were missing.
(AP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 19, In the southern
Philippines the death toll from devastating flash floods rose to 927
and was expected to climb higher as relief workers recovered more
bodies from Mindanao.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 20, Philippines’
President Benigno Aquino flew to Mindanao to survey the devastation
by air, coordinate the relief effort. Some 957 people were killed
and 49 others left missing after tropical storm Washi lashed the
southern island of Mindanao.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 21, In southeast
Turkey a passenger bus collided with a truck on a single lane road,
killing 25 people.
(AP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 24, A boat carrying
Haitian migrants sank off Cuba's eastern coast. 38 migrants were
killed and 87 others rescued by Cuban civil defense forces.
(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 25, The Vinalines
Queen disappeared on Christmas Day after passing the island of Luzon
in the Philippines. The Vietnamese ship had capsized, apparently
without sending a distress signal. A Vietnamese seaman survived five
days floating in open ocean with only a life jacket for protection
after his cargo ship sank and all his 22 crew mates died. The ship
was carrying more than 54,000 tons of nickel ore and was traveling
from Indonesia to China when it lost contact. Global ship owners
association Intercargo issued a statement in December 2010 warning
of the hazards of transporting nickel ore which, it said, may
liquefy and cause a ship to list if not loaded to international
standards.
(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 25, In Zimbabwe a
pleasure boat capsized at Lake Chivero, drowning 11 of 19 people,
most of them children.
(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 29, In Myanmar a fire
followed by several explosions engulfed many state warehouses and
neighboring homes, killing at least 16 people and injuring 108 in
the main city of Yangon.
(AP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 29, In Venezuela a
tanker truck filled with gasoline crashed and burst into flames,
engulfing several cars and a bus and killing at least 13 people.
(AP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 30, In India a severe
cyclone packing winds of 135 km (83 miles) an hour tore into the
southeastern coast. At 42 people died when Cyclone Thane hit coastal
southern India near the former French colony of Pondicherry.
(AFP, 12/30/11)(Reuters, 12/31/11)(AP, 1/1/12)
2012 Jan 1, In Kenya at least
eight people drowned after a boat capsized in rough seas off the
Kenyan tourist island of Lamu. More than 20 of the over 80
passengers on board were unaccounted for.
(AFP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 3, In China 13 people
were killed in Hunan province when a truck crossed a highway divider
and crashed head-on into a bus traveling in the opposite direction.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, In southern China a
bus went out of control and slipped from a snow-covered bridge,
killing at least 18 people in Guizhou province.
(AP, 1/4/12)(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 5, In the southern
Philippines a landslide tore through a tiny gold-mining village,
killing at least 31 people in Napnapan village, Mindanao island. Up
to 39 people were still missing.
(AP, 1/5/12)(AFP, 1/6/12)(AFP, 1/8/12)
2012 Jan 7, In New Zealand a
hot air balloon burst into flames and crashed after hitting a power
line, killing all 11 people on board as their families watched on in
horror.
(AFP, 1/7/12)
2012 Jan 13, The cruise ship
Costa Concordia ran aground off the tiny island of Giglio, off the
coast of Tuscany, with more than 4,200 people aboard. Captain
Francesco Schettino (52) was soon detained on charges of
manslaughter. 11 bodies were soon recovered. 5 more bodies were
recovered on Jan 21-24. 16 people remained unaccounted
for.
(AP, 1/14/12)(AP, 1/15/12)(SFC, 1/16/12,
p.A3)(AP, 1/17/12)(AP, 1/24/12)
2012 Jan 15, In Lebanon a
five-story residential building collapsed after days of heavy rains,
killing 27 people, mostly foreign workers. The building's owner,
Michel Saadeh, was arrested the next day.
(AP, 1/16/12)(AFP, 1/18/12)
2012 Jan 16, In Haiti 29 people
died and 67 were injured after a truck's brakes failed and the
vehicle crashed on Route Delmas, one of the busiest streets of
Port-au-Prince.
(AP, 1/17/12)
2012 Jan 21, An Iranian boat
sank while sailing between Hormuz Island and the port city of Bandar
Abbas on the mainland. 17 people died after a storm capsized the
passenger boat.
(AP, 1/22/12)
2012 Jan 24, Afghan officials
said heavy snow and avalanches in Afghanistan's far northeast have
killed at least 46 people since last week.
(AP, 1/24/12)
2012 Jan 24, In Papua New
Guinea as many as 60 people were feared dead after a massive
landslide wiped out an entire village in the rugged Southern
Highlands.
(AFP, 1/25/12)
2012 Jan 25, In Brazil a
building of some 20 stories collapsed in Rio de Janeiro causing 2
other smaller buildings to also come down. At least 17 people were
killed and after 3 days 7 people remained missing.
(AP, 1/26/12)(AP, 1/28/12)
2012 Jan 25, In northwest
Pakistan nine phosphate miners were feared dead after they were
buried by a large landslide in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
(AP, 1/25/12)
2012 Jan 25, At least 15 Somali
migrants were killed and 40 left missing after their boat capsized
off the coast of Libya. The boat had been carrying 55 Somalis and
the other passengers were still missing.
(AFP, 1/28/12)
Go to
http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Disaster, Tragedy
End of file-36pp
Top 16 NATURAL DISASTERS SINCE 1000 AD (excluding purely
agricultural
Famine) - by numbers of deaths
1931 Jul-Nov, The Huang He
River
(Huang Ho, Yellow River) in China flooded more than 40,000 sq. miles
and more than a million people were killed.
(HFA, '96,
p.71)(http://socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/geography/huangheriver.htm)
1201 Jul 5, An earthquake in
Syria
and upper Egypt killed some 1.1 million people.
(www.geohaz.org/member/news/signif.htm)
1887 China’s Huang Ho (Huang
He,
Yellow River) flooded and killed about 900,000 people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_toll)
1556 Feb 2, The worst
earthquake
in history devastated China’s Shanxi Province, killing 830,000
people.
(PCh, 1992,
p.190)(www.kepu.ac.cn/english/quake/ruins/rns03.html)
1970 Nov 12-13, A 240 KPH
cyclone
hit the Ganges delta. Flooding followed and an esti-mated 300,000 in
East Pakistan (Bangladesh), were killed.
(SFEC, 9/5/04,
p.6)(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1976 Jul 28, In China a 7.8-8.2
earthquake in the northern city of Tangshan killed at least 242,000
people. This was reported as the deadliest earthquake in the last
100
years.
(AP,
7/28/97)(http://history1900s.about.com/od/horribledisasters/a/tangshan.htm)
1737 Sep 19, In India’s Bay of
Bengal a cyclone destroyed some 20,000 ships. It was esti-mated that
more than 300,000 people died in the densely populated area called
the
Sundar-bans. Later research indicated the population of Calcutta at
the
time to be around 20,000. An estimate of the number of deaths was
revised down to about 3,000.
(http://cires.colorado.edu/~bilham/gif_images/1737Calcutta.pdf)
1850 Sep 22, An earthquake in
Sichuan, China, killed some 300,000 people.
(www.geohaz.org/member/news/signif.htm)
1927 May 27, An earthquake in
China’s Qinghai (Xining) Province left some 200,000 dead.
(www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/eq/faq/world.htm)
1920 Dec 16, In China an 8.6
earthquake in the northwestern provinces of Gansu and Shanxi caused
massive landslides and the deaths of 100,000- 200,000 people.
(SFC, 1/800,
p.A8)(www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/eq/faq/world.htm)
2004 Dec 26, The world's most
powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that
slammed into villages and seaside resorts across southern and
southeast
Asia killed. The initial estimated death toll of 9,000 soon rose to
more than 157,663 people in 12 countries. The magnitude 9.0
earthquake
was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the larg-est since a
9.2
temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964. The epicenter was
located 155 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh
province on Sumatra, and six miles under the seabed of the Indian
Ocean.
(AP, 12/27/04)(SFC, 12/28/04, p.A1)(AP, 1/14/05)
1923 Sep 1, The Japanese cities
of
Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by the Great Kanto earthquake
that
claimed 99,000-143,000 lives. The 7.9-8.3 quake off Tokyo's
shoreline
killed some 99,300 people.
(AP,
9/1/97)(www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/eq/faq/world.htm)
1991 Apr 30-31, A cyclone in
Bangladesh killed an estimated 131,000 people. 9 million were left
homeless. Thousands of survivors died from hunger and water borne
disease.
(AP, 4/30/97)(SFC, 5/19/97,
p.A13)(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1948 Oct 6, A 7.3 earthquake
hit
Ashgebat, Turkeminstan, and killed an estimated 110,000 people.
Stalinist media at the time claimed only 35,000 deaths.
(http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqsmosde.html)
1908 Dec 28, Some
70,000-100,000
people died in the Messina earthquake in Sicily. The government
hired a
number of steamships, including the Florida, to ship survivors to
America.
(WUD, 1994, p.899)(WSJ, 2/8/99,
p.A21)(http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqsmosde.html)
1755 Nov 1, An 8.7 earthquake
hit
Lisbon, Portugal, and killed some 70,000 people. Heavy damage
resulted
from ensuing fires and tsunami flooding in Morocco and nearly a
quarter
of a million people were killed.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, p.T7)(HN,
11/1/98)(http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqsmosde.html)
1971 Aug 20-21, In Vietnam
heavy
rains flooded the Red River delta and some 100,000 peo-ple were
killed.
(www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001440.html)
End of file