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Peshtigo Fire
A lesser-known fire in Wisconsin that burned on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 turned out to be the nation's deadliest.The wildfire even jumped across the Peshtigo River, trapping both sides of the town in flames. By the time the inferno subsided, it had scorched 12 towns and left roughly 1,200 dead. -
South Carolina Hurricane
Hundreds of people were lost in this August 27th hurricane that struck the east U.S. coast at the juncture of Georgia and South Carolina, causing severe damage to Savannah and Charleston. The storm then moved inland, dissipating on the 29th over northwestern Mississippi, resulting in about 700 deaths. -
Johnstown Flood
During the late 19th Century, the small industrial community of Johnstown in Pennsylvania earned a reputation as a producer of high-quality steel.Days of torrential downpour caused the dam to burst, unleashing more than 20 million tons of water and debris to crash down on the city with the force of Niagara Falls. The flood leveled 1,600 homes and killed 2,209 people. -
Hurricane Galveston
When the category 4 hurricane with estimated 135 mph winds made landfall in the early morning, buildings crumbled under the force of 15-foot-high waves. By late afternoon, the entire island was submerged. An estimated 8,000 people perished. -
Great San Francisco Fire and Earthquake
The estimated 7.7- to 7.9-magnitude temblor not only broke natural gas mains, which sparked the fires, but also damaged water mains, leaving the fire department with limited resources to battle the blaze.By the time the fires were doused, flames had devoured more than 500 city blocks, and 3,000 lives were lost. Of those who survived, approximately 225,000 people found themselves without a home. -
Tri-state Tornado
Widely considered the most powerful and devasting tornado in American history, the Great Tri-State Tornado ripped through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana on March 18, 1925. It's uninterrupted 219-mile treck killed 695 people, injured more than 2000, destroyed about 15,000 homes, and damaged more than 164 square miles. -
Dust Bowl
Continued through the entire summer. Prior to the early 1930's, the Great Plains was a farmer's paradise. Rising demands for wheat spurred settlers to plow much of the southern plains' grassy soil to meet this need.
A decade-long drought transformed the loose topsoil into dust, which windstorms swept up and blew eastward, darkening skies as far away as the Atlantic Coast. With most of the area crops decimated, a third of the farmers turned to government aid, while around half a million Amer -
New England Hurricane
The hurricane dubbed by some as the "Long Island Express" made landfall over Long Island and Connecticut as a category 3 storm on September 21, 1938. The powerful hurricane decimated almost 9,000 buildings and homes, caused over 700 deaths, and reshaped the landscape of the south Long Island shore. The storm caused over $306 million in damage in 1938 dollars, which would equal about $3.5 billion in today's dollars. -
Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami
On Dec. 26, 2004, an undersea, magnitude-9.3 earthquake, with an epicenter off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, resulted in a devastating tsunami that hit the coasts of several countries in South and Southeast Asia. The Indian Ocean earthquake and its resulting tsunami killed an estimated 225,000 to 230,210 people. -
Hurricane Katrina
Katrina roared into the Louisiana coast with 125 mph sustained winds, causing a storm surge that broke levees that shielded New Orleans from surrounding, higher coastal waters, and leaving 80 percent of the city under water. Katrina killed at least 1,836 people and inflicted damages estimated at around $125 billion.
