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  #21  
Old Posted Dec 26, 2019, 4:17 PM
Ant131531 Ant131531 is offline
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-2008 Tornado that hit Downtown Atlanta.

-Historic Flooding of September 2009.

Atlanta is relatively safe from natural disasters...the tornado was a huge fluke and extremely unlikely to happen again in any of our lifetimes and flooding can occur almost anywhere.
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  #22  
Old Posted Dec 26, 2019, 4:31 PM
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the worst disaster that chicago has ever witnessed in terms of loss of life was the capsizing of the SS Eastland in 1915. 844 lives were lost.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Eas...tland_disaster

she was a passenger steamer and as she was moored in the chicago river loading passengers to take them on a company picnic across the lake in Michigan City, IN, she suddenly rolled over trapping hundreds below deck who drowned.


source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...g_in_river.png



the disaster obviously wasn't as damaging to the city overall like the Great Fire was, but the death toll was nearly 3x higher.

to this day it remains the worst loss of life maritime disaster ever on the great lakes (though it technically occurred in the river about 1 mile inland from the lake).
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  #23  
Old Posted Dec 26, 2019, 4:35 PM
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Wow, I live in a city with no real disaster to ever happen. Wilmington has never had a big fire, or a big flood, or a significant tornado, or anything like that. There have been hurricanes that have passed over this area: Floyd in 1999, Henri and Isabel in 2003, Irene in 2011, and Sandy in 2012. These caused floods, but nothing like the flooding from Katrina in New Orleans, Harvey in Houston, and others.

The state of Delaware has not had too many bad storms either. Sandy's eye passed over Ocean City, Maryland, a quarter-mile or half-mile south of Fenwick Island, so we were less than a mile away from our first hurricane technically making landfall on Delaware back then. ("Landfall" is considered when the eye of the storm comes over land.)

The worst disaster in state history is the noreaster of 1962. Noreasters, as many on the East Coast know, are basically winter hurricanes. You get the same cyclonic activity, and the same precipitation and winds in many cases. Most times the precipitation is snow. This storm in 1962 was considered one of the worst storms of the 20th century, right up there with the worst hurricanes.

Rehoboth Beach took a huge beating from the storm, and most of the buildings on the coast were destroyed. 7 of the 40 casualties from the storm took place in Delaware. There's lots of pictures from the storm here.
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  #24  
Old Posted Dec 26, 2019, 4:43 PM
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Welp...

- April 27, 2011 tornado in Tuscaloosa while I lived there. For the past 60-70 years, the city has experienced a disastrous tornado every ~20 years; though, the 2011 tornado was of course the worst. 64 people were killed by that one tornado, 44 in Tuscaloosa alone.

- Same tornado passed through Birmingham, the city I live in now.
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  #25  
Old Posted Dec 26, 2019, 4:47 PM
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Grew up in suburbs of Kansas City where the worst disaster must certainly be the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse. 1600 people in the lobby for the Friday "tea dance," and as the band was playing Satin Doll, the walkways let go. 114 people died, another 200+ injured. The collapse is still used in engineering schools as a lesson in human error. Listen to Satin Doll as you read about the collapse and imagine being there dancing or listening to a great Ellington song, and your world collapsing in the blink of an eye.
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  #26  
Old Posted Dec 26, 2019, 5:09 PM
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For Buffalo the worst natural disaster was the Great Flood of 1844 - a 22 foot seiche on Lake Erie killed 52 people inland, and 25 in lake boats.

The worst man-made disaster was the burning of the city by the British in 1813.
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  #27  
Old Posted Dec 26, 2019, 5:36 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ant131531 View Post
-2008 Tornado that hit Downtown Atlanta.

-Historic Flooding of September 2009.

Atlanta is relatively safe from natural disasters...the tornado was a huge fluke and extremely unlikely to happen again in any of our lifetimes and flooding can occur almost anywhere.
That's what they said when an Atlanta based firm bought my company back in the '90s. No real need for a DR center ( they had lied to their clients saying they had one) because there are no natural disasters in Atlanta. Weeks later there was a mass shooting in the office complex the new owners had their office in - with their server room on the first floor.

And no not everybody floods, well not in the normal way.
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  #28  
Old Posted Dec 26, 2019, 6:24 PM
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Disasters/weather events that I personally experienced:

New York - Sandy was the most damaging weather event that I have ever experienced. The toll of Sandy was a shock because Irene had come through NYC a year before and barely felt like a moderate windstorm.

Ann Arbor/Detroit - The Great Northeast blackout of 2003. Perhaps the most insane event to happen in the U.S. (and Canada) during the 2000s that was not a terrorist attack.

Detroit - The worst weather disaster that I recall happening in Detroit was a couple of intense back-to-back snowstorms hitting the area right after New Year's Day 1999 that dumped almost 2 feet of snow. It happened the night before most districts were set to reopen after the Christmas break, but instead most districts got another week off. The city itself was paralyzed for two weeks following that storm, and it highlighted some very major shortcomings in the city's snow removal policy. Before that storm, there was no policy for clearing snow from streets in residential areas. After that storm, the policy was for streets to be cleared for snowfalls of 6 inches or more.
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  #29  
Old Posted Dec 26, 2019, 7:23 PM
Dariusb Dariusb is offline
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Originally Posted by IluvATX View Post
Anchorage, Alaska
9.2 earthquake 1964
7.1 earthquake November 2018. Many businesses still closed and roads still damaged. Everything in my house broke or fell that was on a wall or upright. Luckily no one was killed and only minor injuries reported.
I saw a program on The Weather Channel talking about that earthquake and the host said Alaska records more earthquakes than any other state. I think they said 5,000 a year, many so small that I they're barely felt.
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  #30  
Old Posted Dec 26, 2019, 7:26 PM
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Very interesting. Some of these disasters I didn't even know about.
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  #31  
Old Posted Dec 26, 2019, 7:50 PM
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Well, for my city the answer is pretty well-known and obvious: The 1906 earthquake and fire.

Quote:
The total number of deaths is still uncertain, but various reports presented a range of 700–3,000+ . . . .

Between 227,000 and 300,000 people were left homeless out of a population of about 410,000; half of those who evacuated fled across the bay to Oakland and Berkeley. Newspapers described Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, the Panhandle and the beaches between Ingleside and North Beach as covered with makeshift tents. More than two years later, many of these refugee camps were still in operation . . . .

At the time of the disaster, San Francisco had been the ninth-largest city in the United States and the largest on the West Coast . . . . Over a period of 60 years, the city had become the financial, trade and cultural center of the West; operated the busiest port on the West Coast; and was the "gateway to the Pacific", through which growing U.S. economic and military power was projected into the Pacific and Asia. Over 80% of the city was destroyed by the earthquake and fire . . . .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_S...sco_earthquake


https://www.history.com/news/why-it-...-build-smarter


https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/de...sco-earthquake


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_S...ramic_View.jpg


https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...ic-gamble.html

But, of course, this isn't the only one. We have had "foreshocks" in the 1800s and at least one important "aftershock" in 1989:


https://www.kqed.org/science/22398/2...e-are-we-safer








Above images: https://sf.curbed.com/2019/10/17/208...iversary-quake
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  #32  
Old Posted Dec 26, 2019, 7:59 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dariusb View Post
I saw a program on The Weather Channel talking about that earthquake and the host said Alaska records more earthquakes than any other state. I think they said 5,000 a year, many so small that I they're barely felt.
That's fairly typical anywhere along the so-called "rim (or ring) of fire":


https://www.britannica.com/place/Ring-of-Fire

These quakes have all occured today (12/26):


https://prod-earthquake.cr.usgs.gov/...t%22%3Anull%7D

In the SF Bay Area, we get little rumbles all the time. Most feel like a heavy truck passing by on the street outside. Many are imperceptible.
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  #33  
Old Posted Dec 27, 2019, 3:10 AM
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Originally Posted by Dariusb View Post
Are you speaking of the mass shooting that occurred on October 16, 1991 that killed 23 and wounded 27 at the Luby's Cafeteria? Just sad. I just moved here earlier this year but I remember when it happened. In my hometown (Texarkana) there was a small tornado. I lived in Dallas for a bit and besides JFK's assassination a Delta Airlines plane crashed at the airport in 1985 killing 131 people including a guy who was killed when the plane flattened his car. Also a couple of tornadoes over the years.
Yes, the Luby's massacre. Texarkana is known for the unsolved 1940s "Phantom" serial killings. In Dallas, there was another serious airport crash three years after the one you cited, but the casualties were far fewer.

As for Toronto, our most famous natural disaster is probably 1954's Hurricane Hazel, which killed 81 locally. We've had only one major plane crash, Flight 621 in 1970, which occurred when the first officer, upon landing, absentmindedly activated the spoilers early, causing the DC-8 to smash into the runway. The pilot managed to get the plane aloft again, but it was fatally damaged and crashed into a farmer's front yard 15 km north of the airport, killing all 109 aboard.

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  #34  
Old Posted Dec 27, 2019, 3:00 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dariusb View Post
I saw a program on The Weather Channel talking about that earthquake and the host said Alaska records more earthquakes than any other state. I think they said 5,000 a year, many so small that I they're barely felt.
We are still having aftershocks from it. Just had one on Christmas that was small , but I felt it. (3.7 magnitude) it was truly scary to be in such a strong earthquake where you feel your home is about to collapse on top of you. I think I heard something like 2,000 aftershocks have occurred since last November’s quake. The aftershocks don’t even count quakes happening elsewhere in the state, but on the same fault line as the big one.
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  #35  
Old Posted Dec 27, 2019, 3:11 PM
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  #36  
Old Posted Dec 27, 2019, 10:13 PM
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On July 16, 1916, 22 inches of rain fell in 24 hours, resulting in the flood of 1916. At least 50 people were killed.


Source.


Source.


Source.


Source.

On July 19, 1967, Piedmont Airlines flight 22 took from the Asheville airport, collided with a Cessna and crashed in Hendersonville, killing 82 people.

Video Link
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  #37  
Old Posted Dec 27, 2019, 11:46 PM
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Originally Posted by Pedestrian View Post
Then the east Bay had to contend with those crazy fires in Oakland just 3 years after the Loma Prieta quake. Impressive how the region bounced back from 2 disasters so close together.
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  #38  
Old Posted Dec 27, 2019, 11:49 PM
Dariusb Dariusb is offline
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Originally Posted by Gresto View Post
Yes, the Luby's massacre. Texarkana is known for the unsolved 1940s "Phantom" serial killings. In Dallas, there was another serious airport crash three years after the one you cited, but the casualties were far fewer.

As for Toronto, our most famous natural disaster is probably 1954's Hurricane Hazel, which killed 81 locally. We've had only one major plane crash, Flight 621 in 1970, which occurred when the first officer, upon landing, absentmindedly activated the spoilers early, causing the DC-8 to smash into the runway. The pilot managed to get the plane aloft again, but it was fatally damaged and crashed into a farmer's front yard 15 km north of the airport, killing all 109 aboard.

Off topic but you have a lovely city.
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  #39  
Old Posted Dec 28, 2019, 1:23 AM
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London's worst Top 10.

1665 Plague 100,000

Spanish Flu 1918 60,000

AD61 destruction of Roman Londinium by Queen Boudicca of the Iceni tribe >50,000

1941 Blitz 50,000

1348 Black Death 30,000

1592 Plague 21,000

1849 cholera 14,000

1952 Great Smog 12,000

1832 cholera 6,500

1212 Great Fire of London 3,000


Honourable mentions: Great Storm of 1707 and again in 1780 were hurricanes that killed thousands and blocked the Thames with shipwrecks. Great Fire of London 1666 destroyed 4/5 of the city. The anti-Catholic Gordon riots killed 500-700. The Peasants Revolt similarly killed 1,500. The 2003 Heatwave killed 800, the sinking of the Princess Alice killed 640, the Bethnal Green stampede killed 167 during an air raid. The Great Beer flood killed 8.

Other great disasters (but in damages mostly) the Great Hurricanes of 1987 and 1991 that felled the majority of trees in the region, the IRA bombings in 1988, 1993 and 1996 that destroyed the financial centres of The City and Canary Wharf 3x (areas evacuated in time, largest bombs in British history).




Last edited by muppet; Dec 28, 2019 at 11:38 AM.
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  #40  
Old Posted Dec 28, 2019, 1:36 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gresto View Post
Y We've had only one major plane crash, Flight 621 in 1970
That happened a year before my family moved to Toronto. I remember a neighbor talking about it. Just a month or so before we moved back to Houston in 1973, another Air Canada DC-8 exploded and burned at the gate while being refueled at (what I think we called at the time) Malton Airport. Now called Pearson. Anyway, they dumped the remains of the destroyed DC-8 next to a taxiway and I remember taxiing past it just before taking off on our flight back to the states. https://www.britishpathe.com/video/V...WO/query/While


As a side note, according to cockpit voice recordings, on approach to Toronto, the crew of the ill-fated Air Canada jet discussed, among other things, how expensive housing in Toronto had gotten. 50 years ago!
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