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Is it that the natural disasters happen in only 3rd world countries or is that all that we ever hear about? The only 1st world catastrophe that I can think of is New Orleans and Katrina, although it looked very third worldish on media reports.
Is it that the natural disasters happen in only 3rd world countries or is that all that we ever hear about? The only 1st world catastrophe that I can think of is New Orleans and Katrina, although it looked very third worldish on media reports.
Bad natural disasters happen everywhere, including here. The destruction & loss of life is markedly worse in poorer nations most likely because the construction of their buildings is poor & their infrastructure is not up to par.
We had the San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906. There were also great fires in Chicago and Baltimore that devastated vast portions of those cities. A hurricane in Galveston in 1900 killed 6000-12000 people. What separates us from many poor countries is that we have the wealth and education to craft building and fire codes to prevent recurrences if at all possible. The dust bowl years in the 1930's were no fun either.
Wikipedia says this of the 1918 flu pandemic: "In the U.S., about 28% of the population suffered, and 500,000 to 675,000 died. In Britain as many as 250,000 died; in France more than 400,000. In Canada approximately 50,000 died."
It could be said that cancer deaths from smoking amounts to a major disaster.
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Is it that the natural disasters happen in only 3rd world countries or is that all that we ever hear about? The only 1st world catastrophe that I can think of is New Orleans and Katrina, although it looked very third worldish on media reports.
There were other bad hurricanes. In just the U.S. you have had floods, heat waves, landslides, earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes...
In your lifetime, let's say the quake that destroyed parts of I-5 in the Los Angeles area, Mt. St. Helens, flooding along the Mississippi or Ohio Rivers, Hurricane Andrew...
There was the Dust Bowl phenomenon in Oklahoma and two major unnamed hurricanes to hit Florida. One was 1935, and I think the other was 1929. Hurricane Donna in the '60s was reportedly bad also, but that's before my time.
Is it that the natural disasters happen in only 3rd world countries or is that all that we ever hear about? The only 1st world catastrophe that I can think of is New Orleans and Katrina, although it looked very third worldish on media reports.
The most recent disaster I can think of in this country would be the total destruction of compassion; the red states seemed to be hit the hardest.
Hurricane Agnes in 1972 had quite a significant impact in the Northeast particularly along the Susquehanna river basin. I wasn't old enough to remember it, what is odd about this hurricane damage is that it was all far inland from floods. We've had some occasional floods since them approaching those levels but nothing has gone over that.
Quote:
Hurricane Agnes was the first tropical storm and first hurricane of the 1972 Atlantic hurricane season. A rare June hurricane, it made landfall on the Florida Panhandle before moving northeastward and ravaging the Mid-Atlantic region as a tropical storm. The worst damage occurred along a swath from central Maryland through central Pennsylvania to the southern Finger Lakes region of New York, as illustrated by the rainfall map below. Agnes brought heavy rainfall along its path, killing 129 and causing $11.6 billion (2005 US dollars) in damage, with railroad damage so extensive it contributed to the creation of Conrail. At the time, it was the most damaging hurricane ever recorded, surpassing Hurricane Betsy, and it would not be surpassed until Hurricane Frederic in 1979. Agnes was also the only Category 1 hurricane to be retired at the time, and one of 5 today (other Category ones were Cesar, Klaus, Noel, and Stan).
Right now this area and many of those areas effected by those floods have protection above the 1972 flood mark but not by much. If such an event were ever to occur again the cost would probably be astronomical simply because of the huge area involved.
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