10 Deadliest natural Disasters of 21st Century

Natural disasters are happening since the beginning of Earth. Even earth itself is a result of some natural catastrophic event. But if we look in the history the natural disasters in last ten years or twenty years, the major responsible factors are the human beings themselves. We may term them as man made disasters as well. We are responsible for global warming, that results into the damaging of ozone layer, melting of glaciers, unusual environment changes and extreme weather conditions. We are damaging our own environment. Here we have discussed different types of natural disasters of 21st Century that happened till now. We listed top 10 natural disasters of 21st century. It is ordered in the pattern with most number of Casualties on top.

10 Deadliest Natural Disasters of 21st Century

2010 Haiti Earthquake

Haiti, the Caribbean Country faced an earthquake of magnitude 7.3 M_W on 12^th of January 2010 at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC). The Epicenter was about 25 Kilometers from west of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.

Haiti earthquake is listed among worst natural disasters in the last 10 years. In this deadliest earthquake 220,000 casualties were approximated and more than 300,000 were injured. More than 3 million people become homeless in this natural disaster.

2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami

Possibly one of the deadliest Earthquake of magnitude 9 M_W followed by a deadliest Tsunami resulted on 26 December in Indian Ocean near Indonesia at 00:53 UTC. Earthquake ejected approximately energy equal to 23,000 atom bombs as fired on Hiroshima. Epicenter was under the ocean in earth and it violently shakes the ocean that resulted into destructive waves that were up to meters high. On first day more than 150,000 people were killed and millions were missing in this environmental disaster.

2005 Kashmir Earthquake

Kashmir, administrated by Pakistan struck a magnitude 7.6 M_W on 8^th of October 2005 at 08:52 local time (03:52 UTC). The center was somewhere near Muzaffarabad, Capital of Pakistan Administrated Kashmir. It also affected Islamabad, the Capital of Pakistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Indian Administrated Kashmir. As per government of Pakistan’s Figures 100,000 people died and more than 70,000 injured and more than 4 million people become homeless. This is considered to be the deadliest natural disasters ever happened in the region.

2003 European Heat Wave

European heat wave is one of the horrible natural disasters happened in the world. In 2003 hottest summer result a heat wave in Europe that was the deadliest in last 500 years’ time. France was affected the most. Death toll was more than 70,000 in Europe including France, Portugal, Germany, Netherland, Spain and Italy. Usually these countries don’t have a hot summer but during the heat wave average temperature was over 45⁰C.

2001 Gujarat Earthquake:

26^th January 2001, on India’s 52^nd Republican day a 7.7 Magnitude earthquake strike Gujarat at 08:46 local time (03:16 UTC). The epicenter was near a village in the district of Gujarat. Earth quake also affected some areas of Bangladesh and approximately 20,000 people were killed in the natural disaster. Nearly 167,000 were injured and more than 400,000 homes and buildings were collapsed.

2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami:

Tohoku, Japan hit a Magnitude 9.0 earthquake on 11^th of March 2011 at 14:46 Local time (05:46 UTC). Epicenter was at 70 kilometers east of Tohoku coast and underwater depth was approximately 30Km. Earthquake was followed by the Tsunami that causes waves of height up to 40 meters. According to Japan’s National Police Agency 15,889 deaths were confirmed. Nearly 6,152 people were injured and more than 2,600 were missing. Millions of buildings were completely collapsed.

2005 Hurricane Katrina:

In August 2005, United States of America faced one of the deadliest hurricanes in a last hundred years’ time. On average it was a category 4 storm. It hit the state Florida and some of the most damaged cities were Mississippi, New Orleans, Biloxi and Gulfport. Approximately 1833 people were died in the Hurricane further followed by floods. This natural disaster causes more than 100 billion USD Property damage.

2008 Afghanistan Blizzard

A record breaking Blizzard hit Afghanistan in February 2008. It reduced the temperature up to -30⁰C. Death toll was about 1000 according to government figures but it mainly disturbed the animals. More than 315,000 cattle, 100,000 sheep and goat died in this deadliest disaster. Lack of transportation and poor health conditions in the affected areas forced the people to walk barefoot in the freezing temperature.

2011 East Africa Drought

East Africa was affected by a severe drought during July 2011 to June 2012. Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia were the main victims. Lives of more than 9 million people were threatened. A large number of people migrated from Somalia to Kenya and Ethiopia which become overcrowded. That caused a lot of issues like unsanitary conditions and malnutrition problems as well and further followed to thousands of deaths. Food crisis spread even up to Sudan and Uganda.

2000 Mozambique Flood

Heavy rainfall during February and March 2000 result into a flood in Mozambique that made thousands of people homeless. More than 800 people were died in the disaster and about 20,000 herds of cattle were lost. It was the deadliest natural disaster in the country in last 50 years. It started in South Africa but major damage was in Mozambique. Government spent more than 15 million USD for citizens but even now in 2015 many of them are still living in recovery shelters.