Most Destructive Natural Calamities in the World
Natural disasters is sudden event that cause destruction and damage that result to loss of life, brought about by forces that even humans can`t predict. A natural disasters can be earthquake, volcanic eruption, flooding, landslide, hurricane and others. To be classified as natural disaster it should bring damage, human loss and financial loss.
There are many natural calamities that happen since the begging of time, it can be destructive that brought extinction to many species like the dinosaurs, some calamities can cause destruction and can end a history of an entire civilization at its peak of splendor like the Minoan civilization.
Natural calamities can be beneficial for all the inhabitants of the earth, but some can be destructive. An example of beneficial calamities is the splitting of Pangea, if the Pangea never split, we could never be alive, if we are alive we will have a hard time to survive because of the powerful tornadoes and devastating droughts simply because Pangea is a massive island. In addition if we are present in the time of Pangea we can only settle at its coast, because water can never be found the further we go to the center.
Now a days natural calamities can be not natural, due to the abusive behavior of humans. We cut tress more than we can plant which causes land slide and flooding. Prolong drought together with the melting ice from the poles because of the global warming. Melting of the ice will cause the rising of water level in the oceans that in the near future will flood many famous cities and coastal areas.
Based on the report of EM-DAT there are 6,873 natural disasters worldwide between period of 1994 and 2013 in which claimed 1.35 million lives and affected 218 million people on average. But in the course of human history there are countless calamities that happen that shape and change the human history. Many calamities can`t be forgotten because of the damaging blow it give to man kind.
Here are the list of the most destructive natural calamities based on deaths:
1. 1931 China floods or the 1931 Yangtze-Huai River floods
Occur from June to August 1931, is a series of flood that affect Republic of China and major cities
like Wuhan, Nanjing and eventually causing a breach in Lake Gauyou on August 25 1931.
In this unfortunate event there are 150,000 people had drowned and 2 million people died because of the flood and lack of food. Following the flood, in the subsequent year in May 1932 an epidemic of cholera that taken 3.7 million people lives. After the devastating flood and epidemic lack of food and medical attention also contributed 422,499 death
Researchers said that the cause is the melting of the ice in the mountainous areas, from 1928 to 1930 China is affected by a harsh winter that cause the increase of ice deposit in the mountain, following that year, in early months of 1931 the climate transition form harsh winter to severe summer and drought causing the ice in the mountains to melt. The flood is approximately 180,000 square kilometers an equivalent size of England and a half of Scotland or the whole stale of New York. Due to the flood, the affected rivers did not return to their normal courses until November
2. 1887 Yellow River flood
Yellow River flood of 1887 was a devastating flood that hit Huang He China. The flood began in September of 1887 and it killed at least 900,000 people and the highest estimated death toll is 2,000,000 million people
3. 1556 Shaanxi earthquake
The 1556 Shaanxi earthquake occurred in the morning to January 23 1556 in Shaanxi, during the Ming dynasty. More than 97 counties are affected by the earthquake including Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Gansu, Hebie, Shandong and Hunan. And some of the building at Beijing were damaged.
The casualties are 830,00 people and in some countries almost 60% of the population was killed by the earthquake.
4. 2010 Haiti earthquake
Haiti earthquake was 7 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter near the town of Leogane and approximately 25 kilometers of west Port-au-Prince. The earthquake occur on Tuesday, January 12 2010 and several days after the main earthquake after shocks are recorded on January 24, the aftershock is approximately 52 times with magnitude of 4.5. After the calamity an estimated 3 million people are affected and the death is approximately 220,000 to 316,000. The quake damages almost 250,000 residential houses and 30,000 commercial buildings collapsed and other are severely damaged.
We can`t prevent or see this natural calamities to happen but we can be prepare for this. We can minimize the damage. we can take care of our planet and hope for the best it will take care of us.
All this calamities take many lives and destroy people`s life. Many people loss their homes and love ones. I hope this kind of calamities never happen again and i hope we learn our lesson to be prepared at any cost. Dont abuse the environment, take care of it and it will take care of us. Plant trees to save our dying mountains. Clean out bodies of water. Be prepare because we don`t know when will the biggest flood and the strongest earthquake will come again. And until that we need to make our word a better place.
Lets make this world beautiful again. Theres no other places like earth so don`t act like we have plenty of earth that we can transfer and destroy again.
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