The Worst World Disasters of All Time. Kevin Baker
4 – Huascaran Avalanche
View of Nevado Huascaran - Image author: Suizaperuana
Date: May 31st, 1970.
Location: Huascaran region, Peru.
Disaster Type: Avalanche.
Fatalities: 74,000 deaths, 25,600 missing & 150,000 injured.
Resulting Damage: 80 million cubic meters of debris which buried everything in its path.
The Huascaran region in Peru was the scene of one of the deadliest avalanches ever to occur in the world. It all started on the afternoon of May 31st, 1970. First came the earthquake, a loud and powerful quake that rocked everything around for close to a minute. This event itself caused a massive amount of damage. Everywhere along the western coast in this South American country, there were buildings destroyed and roads fractured. The quake was caused by a rupture on the Circum-Pacific belt, which is an area of high seismic activity. The Andes mountain ranges have suffered a lot of earthquakes over the years, with both Peru and Chile suffering from some of the devastation resulting from those quakes.
This Huascaran earthquake had a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter scale and lasted over 45 seconds. It occurred at 15:23 PM local time and the centre of the quake was around 35 km off the coast, in the Pacific Ocean. It was so intense that people all over the region felt it, even in Ecuador and Brazil, reporting that they felt the ground move during that time. In all, an area of over 80,000 square km was affected by the quake resulting in large-scale destruction. Three million people felt the quake in some way, with some people seeing their homes destroyed or damaged, and others being injured or killed. Local authorities counted over 74,000 deaths with an extra 25,600 missing. Almost 150,000 people were injured in the event.
But the quake itself was just the first problem this region had, as right after the earthquake, a face of the Nevado Huascaran Mountain broke up, destabilizing the whole area where a huge avalanche was produced. Rocks, snow and ice fell upon the village below in a massive 1 mile long avalanche. Debris moved over 11 miles down the mountain range in only eight minutes and completely covered Yungay, a local village which was home to over 20,000 people. Everyone who was in the village itself was covered by the massive avalanche and died almost instantly. Over 80 million cubic metres of debris ended up crashing down on top of the area, burying everything in its path.
The town of Yungay has since then been kept as a national cemetery, a reminder of what happened on that day. May 31st is a day of Natural Disaster Education and Reflection in Peru with people going to visit the location on a yearly basis. Students throughout the Peruvian educational system learn about the disaster on this day and remember those who lost their lives. While stronger quakes have occurred elsewhere, this was the deadliest avalanche to be recorded in history so far.
5 – Bengal Famine
British East India Company flag.
Date: 1770 – 1773.
Location: Bengal, India.
Disaster Type: Famine.
Fatalities: 10,000,000 deaths.
Resulting Damage: Large areas depopulated.
Many people in modern times worry about the flu or other similar epidemic events which may hit hundreds of people in a city, but we easily forget about some of the more brutal events that occurred throughout history. One of the worst, yet mostly forgotten events, was the Bengal famine of 1770 – 1773 where 10 million people died, not from a virus but from a lack of proper nutrients. This event occurred in the area of Bengal which at the time was still ruled by the British Empire. The affected region included West Bengal, Bangladesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha. The people living there used to be part of the Mughal empire, but by the early 1700s they had become tribal people, freed from Mughal rule. This is when the British came and took control of the region.
The controlling power was the British East India Company which was granted full control by the Mughal prince. Throughout the eighteenth century, the British established trade and fought against any opposing local leader, ending with the battle of Plassey in 1757 where Bengal then became fully under the control of London. Due to this new situation, the local villagers saw their agricultural processes modified. The East India Company was interested primarily in profit and exported a majority of the local surplus food supplies. They also imposed very high taxes on the local populations. Finally, a lot of food crops were replaced with opium instead. So in 1769, when a devastating drought occurred, there was simply not enough food to feed everyone. The following year things became even worse and starvation began to set in.
For the best part of two years almost nothing could be grown because of extreme heat and a lack of rain, and as a result deaths started occurring on a large scale, because there were no surplus food supplies available. The selfish policies of the company ensured that the local villagers had no chance of survival during the long drought, until heavy rains returned once again so that the remaining malnourished survivors could grow crops. In all, one third of the population in these regions died from the famine due to poor management from the British Empire, combined with an unusually long drought period.
Large areas became depopulated during the drought, with many survivors understandably abandoning the area affected. During the drought, trade leaders did little to help the local population, instead they increased taxes even more, leading many to despise the British Empire. As a result, the region was kept back from developing for over a decade. This event is even studied in some schools as a lesson on how not to prioritize trading over keeping local surplus food supplies for emergency situations.
6 – Spanish Flu Pandemic
Seattle policemen wearing masks provided by the Red Cross.
Date: January 1918 – December 1920.
Location: Worldwide.
Disaster Type: Influenza pandemic.
Fatalities: 500 million people infected and 20 - 40 million deaths worldwide
The 2009 the H1N1 flu pandemic was a worldwide concern where the so-called ‘bird flu’ mutated to affect some human beings in several regions of the world. But this was the second time that the H1N1 virus threatened human life. Back in 1918, the very first bird flu pandemic caused much more devastation and death. Back then, there was no vaccine and very few medications that could be used to combat this disease, and in all over 500 million people were infected around the globe, from the Pacific Islands all the way to the Arctic, with a death rate close to 20%. Almost 5% of the world’s population perished in a matter of months due to the Spanish flu. While most countries were hit, there were some very large populations decimated in Spain, which is how the pandemic came to be known as the Spanish flu.
World War I and the way soldiers were being deployed to faraway locations, plus their living conditions, were the primary causes of why this particular pandemic was so devastating. Because of the war, soldiers were present in large numbers, and would all sleep together in large tents or buildings. The close quarters that were common to soldiers in those days increased the infection rate, on top of massive troop movements which allowed the flu to spread around the world much faster than it otherwise could have. There were other reasons why the war helped the virus out too, like malnourishment and exhaustion due to intense and stressful combat. Both sides in the conflict were hit, but the Axis side suffered many more casualties, which may actually have helped contribute to the Allies eventual victory in World War 1.
There is no record showing where the flu came from, but in January of 1918 U.S. Army doctors noticed the sickness in Kansas. The virus quickly spread around the base and to surrounding areas.