The Worst Natural Disasters In The last Hundred Years, Ranked

What is worse, a tsunami or a flood, a tornado or a cyclone? We looked at 
the 10 most common natural disasters, then ranked the worst instance 
of each since the 20th century by death toll. One thing is clear: Nature is 
powerful, and can do great damage.

10. The Kursha-2 Wildfire—1,200 Dead
Wildfires are hugely destructive, but they don't typically lead to much loss of life. This wasn't the case in 1936, when 1,200 people died in a raging inferno made worse by human incompetence. A single railway ran from the industrial community of Kursha-2 in the Soviet Union where wood was harvested to the town of Tumskaya, where it was processed. When a firestorm began encroaching on Kursha-2, woodcutters and their families attempted to board the train, but the dispatcher required that the harvested wood be loaded first. People scrambled aboard anyplace they could sit, but the delay proved deadly. A bridge near the settlement was already on fire, the train was trapped, and all but 20 of the passengers perished. Today the settlement is in ruins and there is one mass grave near the train depot.

9. The Daulatpur-Saturia Tornado—1,300 Dead
The deadliest tornado in recorded history was only 26 years ago, when it hit the cities of Saturia and Daulatpur in Bangladesh. Some 1,300 people were killed, 12,000 injured and 80,000 left homeless. The tornado had a path of 16 kilometers, reportedly destroying all structures in an area of 6 square kilometers.

8. The Iran Blizzard—4,000 Dead
In 1972, a week-long period of storms dumped more than 10 feet of snow across rural areas of Iran. The south of the country was the hardest hit, with some towns receiving more than 26 feet of snow. Entire villages were completely covered, with no survivors remaining.

7. The Mt. Huascarán Avalanche—20,000 Dead
A magnitude 7.9 earthquake off the coast of Peru in 1970 destabilized the northern wall of Mt. Huascarán, causing an avalanche of glacial ice and rock to start sliding downhill. Soon the avalanche was 3,000 feet wide and 1 mile long. It picked up speed as it headed downhill, soon reaching speeds of more than 180 mph. By the time it reached the city of Yungay, killing 20,000 people, the avalanche was carrying 80 million cubic meters of mud, ice, and snow.

6. The Mt. Pelée Volcanic Eruption—29,000 Dead
Only two people survived the pyroclastic flows that destroyed the city of St. Pierre at the base of Mt. Pelée on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean. More than 29,000 died as hot gas, ash and rock rushed down the mountain just minutes after the eruption. Mt. Pelée had been experiencing small eruptions for two weeks prior to the main eruption. While some people were fleeing the island, others were fleeing the mountains and moving to St. Pierre to take refuge. Immediately after the eruption on May 8, 1902, a massive cloud of volcanic gas heated to 2,000 degrees F rushed downhill. The only two people to survive were a man stuck in a prison cell with no windows and a man on the outskirts of town who escaped with severe burns.

5. The European Heat Wave—70,000 Dead
In the summer of 2003, a heat wave that spread across Europe and focused on France killed 70,000 mostly elderly people. It was the hottest summer in Europe since at least 1540. The elderly were unfamiliar with how to cope with the hot temperatures, and the heat was struck in August, when many emergency personnel were on their summer holiday. Some bodies were not claimed for weeks because family members were away on vacation.

4. The Indian Ocean Tsunami—230,000 Dead
With a magnitude of 9.1-9.3, the earthquake off the coast of Indonesia on December 26, 2004 was the third-largest earthquake ever recorded by a seismograph. It was the subsequent tsunami, however, that caused the real damage. It killed at least 230,000 people in 14 countries as the tsunami spread across the entire Indian Ocean over the course of seven hours. Indonesia sustained the most damage, where as many as 170,000 people were killed.

. The Bhola Cyclone—500,000 Dead
Before the cyclone reached land in East Pakistan on November 12, 1970, about 90 percent of the population was aware of the incoming storm, according to later estimates. However, Essentially no one did anything to take cover before the storm hit. The storm surge was severe in the low-lying Bay of Bengal; some areas lost 45 percent of their total population.

2. Tangshan Earthquake—650,000 Dead
While residents were soundly sleeping at 4 a.m. on July 27, 1976, disaster struck. With no warning, a 7.8 rating earthquake struck the city of Tangshan, China. People were crushed in their beds, trapped by hastily made buildings that weren't earthquake sound. The Chinese government declined United Nations assistance and rebuild the city from scratch. Today this city of 3 million people is known as the "brave city of China."

1. Chinese Floods—1-4 Million Dead
The 1931 floods in China were one of the worst natural disasters ever, and easily the worst of the 20th century. Both the Yangtze and Huai Rivers flooded, inundating the city of Nanjing, the capital of China at the time of the flood. Millions died from drowning, and more died from starvation and waterborne diseases like cholera. The high-water mark was 53 feet above normal.