While 2011 is just getting started and incidents of natural disaster are gearing up and making headlines, last year was quite busy with the Earth rumbling, grumbling, blowing and showing what it can do. According to Our Amazing Planet, 2010 was a big year for earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, landslides, rare tornadoes and hurricanes/typhoons/cyclones around the world. A U.N. report cited on VOANews.com said that 2010 was not only busy, but was the “deadliest year for disasters in two decades”–citing that nearly 300,000 deaths were caused by 370 natural disasters worldwide during the year.
In 2010, the biggest natural disaster was the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti on January 12, which killed around a quarter of a million people and devastated a country.
Not only did natural disasters affect the lives of some 200 million people worldwide, but they also caused an economic loss of around $110 billion.
While the Haiti earthquake was the deadliest, the most costly disaster was the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile in February 2010. That disaster caused $30 billion in damages. Other earthquakes that caught attention during 2010 include a 3.9 magnitude quake that struck New York City, a 7.2 temblor that rattled southern California and Mexico, and a 7.7 earthquake that struck Indonesia and triggered a tsunami.
Perhaps the most noted volcanic eruption of 2010 was the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland. The volcano began erupting in March and ash wreaked havoc on air travel.
As far as volcano-related fatalities go, though, Indonesia’s Mount Merapi was a deadly volcanic eruption in 2010. The volcano began erupting October 26 and left 350 dead and 400,000 refugees.
Floods struck areas of Portugal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Rio de Janiero and China during 2010, but in the United States, flooding in Nashville, Tennessee and Arkansas made headlines.
Flooding in Tennessee in late April and early May of 2010 was responsible for more than 20 deaths and damage in Nashville and surrounding areas after severe thunderstorms and tornadoes hit western and middle Tennessee. The storm system dumped hurricane-like rain on 53 counties in Tennessee and spawned 12 tornadoes. This event also included straight line winds, severe lightning and flash flooding. In western Tennessee, between 14 and 22 inches of rain fell in a 48 hour period. The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved over $240 million in aid as a result of this natural disaster.
A flash flood in Arkansas in June swept away campers and left at least 16 dead. Overnight rains of more than six inches caused the Missouri River in Montgomery County to rise approximately 20 feet in a four-hour time period overnight, flooding a campground in the Oachita National Forest.
There were landslides in Mexico, Uganda, China, Venezuela and Colombia and avalanches in Pakistan and Afghanistan during 2010 that made the list of “Biggest Natural Disasters of 2010.” In addition, a rare tornado occurred in New York City in September and unusual late fall tornadoes hit Illinois, Wisconsin and Oregon in November and December.
In the area of hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones were also big disasters for the year. The most notable hurricanes were Hurricane Tomas that hit Costa Rica and Haiti and Hurricane Frank that hit Mexico. The Philippines was hit by two notable typhoons in 2010–Typhoon Conson in July, a Category 1 typhoon, and Typhoon Megi, a Category 5 typhoon that struck in October. Myanmar was struck by a Category 4 cyclone in October–Cyclone Giri.
Other naturally-occurring events that caused death during 2010 include severe heat waves, including a heat wave during the summer that caused 56,000 deaths in Moscow.
