Top 5 Worst US Disasters

While during some research I found was surprising that 2 out of the top 5 worst disasters were actually caused by drought. I thought earthquakes such as the San Andreas, in 1988 would of made the list. Hopefully this years Cali drought won't make the list. :/

reply to post by demonid011

Oh, natural disasters.

I thought you were referring to the presidencies of George W. Bush and Obama.

reply to post by gladtobehere


lol no not those, I chose not to work on the project for school lol

reply to post by demonid011


Here is the domestic disaster that has probably led to the most suffering in the US, and the disaster which happened in the US that led to the most deaths worldwide (through wars, pollution, poverty, etc):



And of course if you have more patience Edward Griffin's "The Creature from Jekyll Island" is a longer overview of the greatest disaster ever to befall America.

reply to post by demonid011



Interesting how they put the billions lost before the lives.
However I do agree with you that the drought angle is worrisome and we all need water to survive.
The Great Lakes are frozen solid and surrounded by untold amount of snow this year.
But the west coast is suffering from one of the worst droughts ever, makes you wonder why because just a few years ago all storm systems moved from West to East.

As you know this is not the case anymore.

Regards, Iwinder
S&F for bringing this to the table.

Iwinder
reply to post by demonid011

 

Interesting how they put the billions lost before the lives.
However I do agree with you that the drought angle is worrisome and we all need water to survive.
The Great Lakes are frozen solid and surrounded by untold amount of snow this year.
But the west coast is suffering from one of the worst droughts ever, makes you wonder why because just a few years ago all storm systems moved from West to East.

As you know this is not the case anymore.

Regards, Iwinder
S&F for bringing this to the table.

It's because there is a ridge of high pressure sitting off the coast of Cali and blocking the storms from coming onshore over southern California like usually happens at this time of year. Instead, they've been re-routed over the Pacific northwest and then dive down over the Rockies or travel straight across the northern tier of the US.

It means Cali will have to mostly rely on those very strong storms that can push over the ridge and what snowpack can melt and find it's way south through drainage which is much less than they've been used to for the past couple of decades. And the environmental lobby in Cali hasn't been helping things by destroying their water storage dams and reservoirs to restore natural drainage. For example, Arizona has also been suffering the same drought, but their own water management policies have them better situated. As of now, the have a year to go before they are going to be as severely stretched as Cali assuming they don't instituted further water conservation measures.

At the same time, the alteration in weather pattern has brought a surplus of water to the rest of the country. This much ice on the Great Lakes is going to likely have some impact on the spring thaw and the sheer amount of snow that will have to melt and drain out will almost certainly mean flooding along the Missouri/Mississippi watershed. It will be interesting to see if the Army Corp of engineers prolongs and worsens the flooding like they did last time this happened for environmental reasons.

But whatever else, this is quite possibly the prevailing pattern, and we'll need to adapt to it. It's really not that unusual. This history of the American southwest is one of deep droughts lasting for years, decades, centuries.

reply to post by gladtobehere


Man I came into the thread to say something like that! Oh well I gave you a star.

reply to post by demonid011

That reminded me of this guy. The Beer Looter Dude.Remember him?I always liked that he was smiling!!

reply to post by demonid011


I'm actually shocked that Northridge wasn't on that list, or the triple Northeast Punch storms from 2011. Heck even the 76 Blizzard caused more damage and loss of life than some of the ones they picked...

seems subjective in terms of how they picked it, but I can think of some that deserved to be on there more, Sandy and Katrina, most certainly though..

reply to post by PlanetXisHERE


I think they are referring to NATURAL DISASTERS not man made ones, not everything is a place for a political statement you know..

reply to post by demonid011


This is what I find the most interesting "coincidence" of all.

That it was this week last year you posted a "Top 5" thread.
And it's not common you do this, you are usually into ghost related topics.

Utterly fascinating.
Are you subconsciously in a "Top 5" mood this time of the year?

It could be at complete random too.
That is so bizarre I don't even know how I noticed such a thing.

vkey08
reply to post by demonid011

 

I'm actually shocked that Northridge wasn't on that list, or the triple Northeast Punch storms from 2011. Heck even the 76 Blizzard caused more damage and loss of life than some of the ones they picked...

seems subjective in terms of how they picked it, but I can think of some that deserved to be on there more, Sandy and Katrina, most certainly though..

Hell the resulting floods from the snow melt in 1976 was epic. I had to deal with both as a kid. Getting dug out of the house and watching my dad and his friends tie the boat to a tree in the back yard when the river rose 14 feet. I found our dock 5 years later at a house down the river, the guy did not know who it belonged to so he added on to his own dock. When I told him it was my dock he told me I could fish off of it for life so I was happy lol. I was young i only cared about Girls and fishing! wait, that is pretty much all I care about now

Cool vid OP,

But one question; Who on earth is the freaky no face white girl?

reply to post by demonid011


This list is crap............It really is. What about the dust bowl of the 1930's,Katrina,New Madrid,San Francisco.....This list is crap.

reply to post by SubTruth


It looks like the video is going by the costliest US natural disasters. It isn't too far off the mark.

Awhile back (Aug 2013), The Christian Science Monitor published a list of the top 10 most expensive US natural disasters.

Here are the top 10 priciest US natural disasters in billions of 2013 dollars adjusted for inflation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The summarized list is:

1. Hurricane Katrina (August 2005): $148.8 Billion (Dead: 1,833)
   
2. Drought and Heat Wave (1988): $78.8 Billion (Dead: 7,500)
   
3. Superstorm Sandy (October 2012): $65.7 Billion (Dead: 159)
   
4. Drought and Heat Wave (1980): $56.4 Billion (Dead: 10,000)
   
5. Hurricane Andrew (August 1992): $44.8 Billion (Dead: 61)
   
6. Midwest Flooding (Summer 1993): $33.8 Billion (Dead: 48)
   
7. Drought and Heat Wave (2012): $30.3 billion (Dead: 123)
   
8. Hurricane Ike (September 2008): $29.2 Billion (Dead: 112)
   
9. Hurricane Rita (September 2005: $19 Billion (Dead: 119) / Hurricane Wilma (October 2005): $19 Billion (Dead: 35)
   
10. Hurricane Charley (August 2004): $18.5 Billion (Dead: 35)

The video lists the same, with only the top 5 shown.

E: As it matches this list well, it's likely the source of the video. However, as mentioned, the Northridge earthquake is very obviously missing. This earthquake has a range of damage estimates, from ~$20B to ~$65B. A recent CNN article puts it at $42B and Katrina at $81B. Rating disasters by this sort of measurement is... iffy, to say the least.