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Worst Natural Disasters in the Western Hemisphere

A single category of worst natural disaster is rare. Fatality numbers, economic loss estimates and instrumental readings often provide contradictory measures of the severity of these events. A moderately sized earthquake striking a highly populated capital of a poor country often causes a greater number of fatalities than a large earthquake striking a wealthier city. Construction techniques and disaster warnings both help and hinder human survival and financial loss. Historical disasters grow more apocalyptic in the retelling.

Earthquakes
- Citizens survey the damaged streets after the 2010 earthquake in Talca, Chile.
  
  The largest earthquake recorded worldwide in the 20th century occurred in Valdivia, Chile, in 1960. It registered 9.5 on the Richter scale and caused 1,665 fatalities. A 5-meter tsunami followed the tremor and spread throughout the Pacific Ocean causing deaths and damage in California, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines and the Samoan Islands. The Jan. 12, 2010, Haiti earthquake registered a magnitude 7.0 and caused the deaths of 222,570 people, injured 300,000 and displaced a further 1.3 million. Economic losses from the Feb. 27, 2010, magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile were $30 billion. This compares with economic losses of $20 billion after the Jan. 17, 1994, magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake in California.
Volcanoes
- The eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 caused $860 million in economic losses.
  
  The 1902 eruption of Mount Pelee in Martinique caused between 30,000 and 40,000 deaths. There were just three survivors on the island, one of whom was a prisoner in a basement cell. The 1985 Nevada del Ruiz eruption and mudslide in Colombia killed 25,000 people. The 1912 Novarupta eruption in Alaska was the most powerful in North America in the 20th century. It spread 30 times more debris than the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption. The Mount St. Helens event caused 57 direct deaths and $860 million in economic losses.
Windstorms
- Hurricane Katrina caused $105 billion in property damage.
  
  Hurricane Katrina in 2005 took the lives of 1,836 people and caused $105 billion in property damage. This was nearly four times the economic losses after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which caused 58 deaths, left 250,000 homeless and cost $27 billion. The 1870 Caribbean Hurricane, killed 22,000 people in Martinique, St. Eustatius and Barbados.
Floods
- Ohio and Mississippi rivers are prone to flooding in the springtime and sometimes this can have devestating effects.
  
  The 1927 Mississippi flood spread over more than 28,000 square miles in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Texas and Oklahoma. It killed 246 people and caused $400 million in damages, which is equal to $4.9 billion in 2010 dollars. The 1999 Vargas floods in Northern Venezuela killed between 20,000 and 30,000 people and cost between $1.79 billion and $3 billion.
Snowstorms
- A snowstorm in 1993 holds the title as heaviest snowstorm of the 20th century.
  
  The winter snowstorm of 1993 was the heaviest storm of the 20th century. Warm air from the Gulf of Mexico clashed with freezing temperatures over Canada and the Northeastern United States. The ensuing snowstorm paralyzed the Eastern United States. At its greatest extent, the area of atmospheric low pressure that gave rise to this storm stretched from Canada to Central America. It caused 243 deaths and cost $3 billion.

Nature