The worst events of 2001 in terms of the number of deaths:
1) January - earthquake in the densely-populated northwestern Gujarat region of India with 13,805 deaths confirmed and many more feared dead.
2) January - Earthquake - a 7.6 magnitude earthquake in El Salavador resulted in at least 844 deaths.
3) November - Flooding - Algeria - at least 764 fatalities, the majority in Algiers
4) January and onwards - Cold weather - Afghanistan - an estimated 500, living in camps after being forced from their homes by either drought and/or civil unrest, died after temperatures fell.
5) August/September/October - Flooding - Vietnam (Mekong Delta region) - at least 322 fatalities - the majority children
6) February - Earthquake - El Salvador - a 6.6 magnitude earthquake resulted in at least 315 deaths
7) November - Storms (Typhoon Lingling) - the Philippines (southern) - an estimated 290 fatalities
8) July - Storms (Typhoon Utor) - the Philippines, China and Taiwan - an estimated 270 fatalities (223 in the Philippines, 46 in China and 1 in Taiwan)
9) August/September - Flooding - India (Uttar Pradesh) - at least 249 fatalities
10) August - Flooding - Iran (northeastern) - at least 240 fatalities (some estimates place the fatality figure around 600)
11) Winter - Cold weather - Russia - at least 232 fatalities
12) July - Flooding and landslides - Pakistan (northern) - an estimated 232 fatalities
13) July - Storms - Taiwan (central/eastern) - Typhoon Toraji - an estimated 200 fatalities as a result of flooding and/or landslides and/or mudslides
14) July - Landslides and/or mudslides - Indonesia (Nias Island) - an estimated 200 people died
15) August/September - Flooding - Nigeria (various regions) - an estimated 200 fatalities
The worst weather-related disaster cost-wise in 2001 was tropical storm Allison, which caused losses of some $6 billion, making it "the most expensive tropical storm in history".
20th - BRAZIL - FLOODING AND MUDSLIDES - 12 DEAD - 5 straight
days of heavy rain.
15th - TEXAS - FLOODS - 5 DEAD - 2 missing
11th - VIETNAM - TYPHOON LINGLING - 20 DEAD - more than 1000 homes
destroyed. 11th -
TURKEY - LANDSLIDE CAUSED BY TORRENTIAL RAIN -
4 DEAD - 3 missing.
11th - ALGERIA - FLOODS - 585 DEAD - 294 others injured. It was the worst flooding in at least 2 decades.
8th - INDIA - LANDSLIDE CAUSED BY TORRENTIAL RAIN - 40 DEAD -
and 20 were missing when three houses were swept away.
6th - PHILLIPINES - FLASH FLOODS FROM TROPICAL STORM LINGLING - 135 DEAD - 300 missing.
5th - CUBA - HURRICANE MICHELLE - 5 DEAD.
October 2001:
31st - JAMAICA - HURRICANE MICHELLE - LANDSLIDES FROM FOUR DAYS OF RAINS - 1 DEAD.
29th - HONDURAS - HURRICANE MICHELLE - FLOODING - 12 DEAD - 26 missing - 115,000 forced from their homes - more rain in 4 days than they usually get in 6 months.
27th - CHINA - 6.0 EARTHQUAKE - 1 DEAD - more than 130 injured - 1500 buildings collapsed.
24th - MIDWESTERN U. S. - EARLY SNOWSTORM - 6 DEAD.
21st - VIETNAM - FLOODING - 10 DEAD - New flash floods triggered by
heavy rains and whirlwinds pushed the death toll from recent flooding to 341.
16th - INDIA - HEAVIEST RAIN IN 40 YEARS - 78 DEAD.
8th -BELIZE - HURRICANE IRIS - 20 DEAD.
6th - DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - MUDSLIDE CAUSED BY HURRICANE IRIS - 3 DEAD
5th - BANGLADESH - 3 TORNADOES - 10 DEAD - 1000 injured - nearly 50,000 homeless -
at least 10,000 mud-and-straw or tin-roof huts were torn to pieces as three separate twisters hit about 50 villages.
4th - INDONESIA - LANDSLIDE - 3 DEAD - 6 missing.
2nd - BRAZIL - WORST FLOODING IN 16 YEARS - 8 DEAD.
September 2001:
27th - NIGERIA -HEAVY RAIN - 13 DEAD - 21 injured - a mud-walled
school collapsed in the northern city of Kano.
24th - MEXICO - HURRICANE JULIETTE - 2 DEAD.
24th - MARYLAND - TORNADO - 2 DEAD.
19th - CHINA - TORRENTIAL RAINS WITH FLOODING - 27 DEAD.
16th - TAIWAN - TROPICAL STORM NARI - 80 DEAD - triggered mudslides and flash flooding.
10th - JAPAN - HURRICANE DANAS - 5 DEAD - 2 missing.
10th - EASTERN INDIA - HEAVY RAINS CASUED FLOODING - 48 DEAD.
9th - INDIA - TORRENTIAL RAINS LEADING TO FLASH FLOODS - 214 DEAD over the
past three weeks.
21st - INDIA - FLOODING - 55 DEAD - ONE MILLION HOMELESS. Worst flooding in 50 years.
21st - IRAN - HEAVY FLOODING - 30 DEAD. Unusual for this time of the year, the Sabalan mountain peak has been covered by more than 3 feet of fresh snowfall.
11th - WASHINGTON - FOREST FIRE - 4 DEAD - A wall of flame crashed down on firefighters huddled in their silver emergency shelters in a narrow canyon in the north Cascade Mountains, killing four of them in the deadliest wildfire since 1994.
8th - WEST VIRGINIA - FLOODING - 1 DEAD - scores stranded.
7th - CHINA - TYPHOON UTOR - LANDSLIDES AND FLOODING - 23 DEAD - pounded southern China, causing $290 million in damage.
7th - FRANCE - VIOLENT STORMS - 10 DEAD - 85 injured.
5th - CHINA & TAIWAN - TYPHOON CHEBI - 87 DEAD - 116 injured, caused an estimated $81 million in damage to Taiwan's agriculture.
4th - PHILIPPINES AND TAIWAN - TYPHOON UTOR - LANDSLIDES AND FLOODING - 100 DEAD - 50 missing.
3rd - CAMEROON, AFRICA - SEVERE FLOODING - 22 DEAD - 1,000 people driven
from their homes. Officials say heavy rains have struck several west African countries.
3rd - VIETNAM - TYPHOON DURIAN - 11 DEAD - 3 missing - from heavy rains and floods.
2ND - CHINA - TYPHOON DURIAN
- 3 MISSING - caused at least
$450 million in damage to homes, farm animals and crops.
June 2001:
29th - NEPAL - FLOODING AND LANDSLIDES TRIGGERED BY
HEAVY MONSOON RAINS - 33 DEAD.
29TH - GHANA - FLASH FLOODS - 6 DEAD - drove tens of thousands from
their homes in Ghana's capital, leaving relief workers scrambling to find
food and shelter for the displaced.
28th - CHINA - FLOODWATERS - 22 DEAD - caused by heavy rains - crushed a workers' dormitory.
24TH - PHILIPPINES - MAYON VOLCANO - alert level raised to highest level -
eruption is in progress with fast-moving lava flows. 60,000 may be evacuated. - The volcano could spit lava and red-hot boulders for several days.
23rd - PERU - 8.1 EARTHQUAKE - 102 DEAD - 1,368 injured. Nearly 48,000 are homeless, 53 are missing and more than 11,000 homes were destroyed. 39 were kiiled in tsunami.
20th - As of today, this year's tornado season has been mild - the season varies by region but
generally runs from March through August. About 580 tornadoes have been
reported this year; the annual average is 800-900. There have been 22 deaths
this year; the average is about 80.
18th -
WISCONSIN - TORNADO - 3 DEAD - 16 injured.
17th - PENNSYLVANIA - TROPICAL STORM ALLISON - 4 DEAD. VIRGINIA - 1 DEAD. NORTH CAROLINA - 9 DEAD. Alliston's death toll is now at least 45.
12th - FLORIDA - TROPICAL STORM ALLISON - 9 DEAD.
8th - LOUISIANA AND TEXAS - TROPICAL STORM ALLISON - 22 DEAD - The remnants of the
storm swamped coastal Louisiana for a fourth day, leaving streets and homes flooded across the region.
8th - CHINA - TORRENTIAL RAINS TRIGGERED FLOODING AND LANDSLIDES - 17 DEAD -10 missing in southern China's Guangdong province.
7th - BANGLADESH - MONSOON FLOODS - 8 DEAD.
5th - COLUMBIA - LANDSLIDES - 13 DEAD.
3rd - COLUMBIA - TORNADOES - 3 DEAD - swept through slums along
Colombia's Caribbean coast, injuring 200 and leaving as many as 4,000 homeless.
May 2001:
24th - CHINA - 5.8 EARTHQUAKE - 27 INJURED - 800 homes destroyed.
23rd - SIBERIA - FLOODING - 5 DEAD - 2 missing - water levels began to subside
after workers destroyed ice blocks.
22nd - BANGLADESH - FLOODS, TORNADOES AND LIGHTNING STRIKES - 3 DEAD
- Storms dumped more than three inches of rain on the capital city of Dhaka
within 27 hours. More than 100 were injured when a tornado lashed five
communities in the northwestern part of the delta nation, damaging 1,000 homes.
22nd - EL SALVADOR - AT LEAST 100 STRONG AFTERSHOCKS - 1 DEAD -
aftershocks from the quake that devastated El Salvador during January and February.
21st - SIBERIA - FLOODING - 5 DEAD - 2 missing - water levels began to subside
after workers destroyed ice blocks.
20TH - KOREA - 60 DAYS OF ONGOING DROUGHT - has caused "huge damage" to fields across the country. Crops planted during the spring are now reported to have withered, which will soon leave the nation entirely dependent on international relief. Most of the country's 22 million people are surviving on a ration of 7 ounces of dried rice or cereal each day. That translates to about as much food as can be held in a single hand.
20th - EL SALVADOR - AT LEAST 100 STRONG AFTERSHOCKS - 1 DEAD -
aftershocks from the quake that devastated El Salvador during January and February.
20th - BANGLADESH - FLOODS AND TORNADOES AND LIGHTNING STRIKES - 3 DEAD - Storms dumped more than three inches of rain on the capital city of Dhaka within 27 hours. More than 100 were injured when a tornado lashed five communities in the northwestern part of the delta nation, damaging 1,000 homes.
20th - PAKISTAN - HEAT WAVE - 25 DEAD - Heat stroke and dehydration have
killed 25 Afghan children at a refugee camp in the past two weeks.
18th - CONGO - 8 HOURS OF NON-STOP RAIN - 30 DEAD - engulfed Congo's capital - some people buried in 5 feet of mud.
16th - PUERTO RICO - The President declared a major disaster exists
in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and ordered Federal aid to supplement
commonwealth and local recovery efforts in the area struck by severe storms,
flooding and mudslides beginning on May 6, 2001, and still continuing.
8th - BANGLADESH - TROPICAL STORM - 20 DEAD.
7th - PUERTO RICO - FLOODING - 2 DEAD - $146 million in damage.
6th - IRAN - HEAVY FLOODING - 32 DEAD - 50 injured.
4TH - THAILAND - FLASH FLOOD - 18 DEAD - 61 missing in 3 mountainside villages.
4TH - INDIA - DROUGHT, HEAT WAVE - 20 DEAD.
2nd - CHINA - LANDSLIDE - 74 DEAD - 7 injured.
APRIL 2001:
30th - UTAH - AVALANCHE - 2 DEAD - the two-mile-wide avalanche piled snow as high as
30 feet. The Utah Avalanche Forecast Center had warned Friday of potentially
catastrophic avalanches in the Wasatch Range.
30th - BANGLADESH - TROPICAL STORMS - 21 DEAD - scores injured and many missing.
25th - BRAZIL - FLOODS - 13 DEAD.
23rd - TANZANIA - LANDSLIDE - 2 DEAD.
22nd - KANSAS - TORNADO - 1 DEAD - 26 injured.
15th - ANGOLA - FLASH FLOODING AND LANDSLIDES - 16 DEAD - 2 missing in
the second heavy rainstrom in two days.
11th - IOWA AND OKLAHOMA - TORNADOES - 4 DEAD.
10th - OHIO - TORNADO, LIGHTNING - 1 DEAD - Lightning killed a man
in western Ohio and a tornado damaged homes and knocked down trees.
MARCH 2001:
24th - JAPAN -6.4 EARTHQUAKE - 2 DEAD - 148 injured.
19th - FRANCE - AVALANCHE - 1 SKIER DEAD.
16th - RUSSIA - KILLER ICICLES - 3 DEAD - 68 injured. Spring has finally
sprung in Moscow after the worst Russian winter in 50 years. Icicles hang
from rooftops in huge, dirty lumps that can weigh hundreds of pounds. And
when the sun comes out, as it did this week, they begin to melt - and kill.
15th - FLORIDA - SEVERAL TORNADOES - 2 DEAD - 10 injured.
12th - THAILAND - FLOODING - 1 DEAD - Flooding in the southern provinces is expected to persist in coming days due to further heavy rains.
12th - SOUTHEASTERN U.S. - SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS - 3 DEAD -
10th - AUSTRALIA - FLOODING - 4 DEAD - some of the worst flooding in half a century struck the eastern coast of Australia - heavy rain continues to inundate northern New South Wales. This is the third major flood in 5 months.
9th - ZIMBABWE - FLOODS - 10 DEAD in the past two weeks.
8th - UKRAINE - INTENSE FLOODING - 7 DEAD -
thousands of troops and residents in neighboring Hungary raced to pile up sandbags to protect sodden villages from further onslaughts of water.
7th - SIBERIA - AVALANCHE - 2 DEAD - about 200 trapped in their vehicles
on a Siberian highway. At least two people died from carbon monoxide
poisoning as they tried to keep warm in their truck, more victims might be
found in buried vehicles as road crews clear the highway. Record snowfalls
have hit Moscow and other Russian regions over the past month.
5th - U.S. - TORNADO SEASON RUNS FROM MARCH TO JULY - 10 DEATHS SO FAR, HIGHER THAN NORMAL. There are an average of 1000 tornadoes a year in the U.S. There have been 21 this year so far.
4th - PORTUGAL - HEAVY RAIN CAUSED A BRIDGE TO COLLAPSE - 67
FEARED DEAD - The bridge collapsed after one of its support pillars gave
way under the pressure from river waters swollen by prolonged heavy rain, dropping a bus and two cars into the river.
4th - ZIMBABWE - FLOODS - 10 DEAD - people living near rivers urged to move to higher ground.
1st - HAITI - TOXIC FRUIT - 39 DEAD - Hungry residents in northern towns
near Haiti's second- largest city, Cap-Haitien, started eating ackee fruit after
heavy flooding in November wiped out much of the area's crops and livestock. A two-day rainfall caused at least nine deaths and destroyed about a dozen
homes. Ackee is a popular fruit used in Caribbean cuisine that is potentially
toxic when unripe. In extreme cases, Haitians have also been known to eat
pancakes made of clay and other inedible items.
FEBRUARY 2001:
28th - SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - 7.0 EARTHQUAKE - 1 DEAD - 480 injured - damaged buildings and forced the evacuation of high rise offices. The quake, felt as far away as Salt Lake City, brought
thousands of people out of offices, hospitals, courthouses and stores and onto
the streets of downtown Seattle. It cracked the dome of the state Capitol
in Olympia, sent bricks tumbling from historic buildings in Pioneer Square,
trapped people at the top of Seattle's landmark World's Fair Space Needle,
triggered landslides that plugged the river that delivers the city's water and
led to the temporary closure of the Seattle-Tacoma airport.
28th - MOZAMBIQUE - RISING FLOODWATERS - 81 DEAD - forcing rural Mozambicans to evacuate their homes, more than 81,000 homeless. More rains are expected.
27th - NORTH VIETNAM - FAMINE - HAS KILLED A MILLION PEOPLE SINCE 1995 - Over the
past six years, droughts and floods have devastated an already
mismanaged agricultural system.
25th - AUSTRIA - AVALANCHE - 1 DEAD.
25th - U.S. - WINTER STORMS - 9 DEAD - 30 injured.
25th - MALAWIA - HEAVY RAINS AND FLOODING - 5 DEAD -
thousands forced to flee their homes.
23rd - CHINA - 6.0 EARTHQUAKE - 3 DEAD - 7 missing - 109 injured by
the quake that struck a remote part of China's Sichuan province. 20,000
houses were damaged or destroyed by the earthquake, which
seriously damaged roads and services, including water supplies,
power and telecommunications.
22nd - EL SALVADOR - 4.2 EARTHQUAKE - caused widespread
alarm but no reported injuries. Several small landslides were reported. Since
the last large quake on Feb. 13 about 1,000 aftershocks have been felt.
22nd - AUSTRIA - MASSIVE AVALANCHE - 4 DEAD - A German family
of four were crushed to death in their car.
21st - SYRIA - WORST SANDSTORM IN MORE THAN 40 YEARS - has raged in the Syrian desert for the past two days.Over 1,000 sheep have disappeared and routes into cities in the area have been cut off.
The storm also caused breathing difficulties for dozens of people who were rushed to hospitals.
20th - AUSTRALIA - SEVERE FLOODS CAUSED BY 2 CYCLONES - A state of emergency has been declared in the Victoria River district and in the Territory's gulf country.
19th - BOLIVIA - FLOODS CAUSED BY ALMOST-CONTINOUS HEAVY RAINS SINCE
MID-DECEMBER - 14 DEAD - raising the death toll to 33 from flooding
in the Andean country.
18th - MISSISSIPPI - VIOLENT STORM - 1 DEAD - dozens of homes destroyed.
17th - PHILIPPINES - HEAVY RAIN CAUSED A LANDSLIDE - 16 DEAD.
17th - EL SALVADOR - 5.3 EARTHQUAKE - 1 DEAD - 3 injured, numerous landslides.
16th - ANGOLA - FLOODS - 3 DEAD. Angola's rains generally last from December to March.
14th - BRITISH COLUMBIA - AVALANCHE - 2 DEAD - 11 others were rescued.
13th - INDONESIA - 7.3 EARTHQUAKE - panicked residents but there were no initial reports of casualties or damage, local officials said. A 7.3 quake is strong enough to cause considerable damage and create tidal waves.
13th - EL SALVADOR - 6.6 EARTHQUAKE - MORE THAN 303 DEAD - about 3,100 injured as it flattened 5,440 homes plus schools and churches. More than 150 aftershocks have rocked El Salvador in 2 days.
The quake came one month to the day after one of 7.6 magnitude killed at least 844 people and left thousands homeless.
13th - WEST JAVA - FLOODS AND LANDSLIDES - 58 DEAD.
12th - MOZAMBIQUE - FLOODS - 7 DEAD - bringing the total death
toll in three weeks to 20. Rain continues to fall.
9th - SAO PAULO, BRAZIL - 5 DEAD since New Year's -
That accounts for more than one fifth of the 24 people that have been killed by
bolts in Brazil so far this year. Brazil suffers the most lightning strikes of any
country in the world - 100 to 200 people are killed every year by one of the
100 million bolts that hit Brazil annually. Most of the deaths happen in summer
in the Southern Hemisphere between December and April when storms of
biblical proportions are a near daily occurrence.
6th - AFGHANISTAN & PAKISTAN - BITTER COLD - 480+ DEAD
- The United States will airlift tents and blankets to help refugees fleeing two
years of drought and two decades of war, hundreds of whom died in bitter
cold last week.
6th - SWITZERLAND - AVALANCHE S - 3 DEAD - 2 still missing - Twelve people were also evacuated from a village near Zinal because of the risk of further snow slides.
2nd - ALASKA - 5.8 EARTHQUAKE - It jolted residents of the sparsely
populated central Aleutian Islands but caused no reported damage.
2nd - MOZAMBIQUE - SIMULTANEOUS FLOODING AND DROUGHT - 11 DEAD - lashed last year by floods that killed hundreds of people and made 500,000 homeless.
2nd - AUSTRALIA - BELTED BY WILD SUMMER WEATHER - Two towns isolated by
rising floodwaters today, while in another part of the country residents returned
home in blistering heat after being evacuated as a bushfire threatened their small
town. Heavy rainfall was lashing inland and coastal areas of New South Wales
state, with ten rivers flooding or at risk of bursting their banks. Twent-five percent
of the state are battling floods or storms in one form or another.
2nd - NEWFOUNDLAND - SUFFERING THROUGH ITS WORST
WINTER ON RECORD.
1st - INDIA - 16, 239 CONFIRMED DEAD - CONTINUING STRONG AFTERSHOCKS SO LONG AFTER
THE FIRST EARTHQUAKE ARE UNUSUAL - Today an aftershock was measured at 4.8. There have been more than 200 aftershocks since the main quake struck on Friday. Normally, there would
have been aftershocks of up to 4.0 on the Richter scale only for the first five
days. But this time aftershocks of more than four are still occuring on
the sixth day. Until aftershock activity falls below three
on the Richter scale for at least 48 hours, the risk period continues.
Officials believe about 11,000 additional dead are buried in the rubble. Over 61, 000 have been injured. There were at least five aftershocks yesterday, the strongest of them at a preliminary magnitude of 4.5.
JANUARY 2001:
30th - U.S. PLAINS STATES - SNOWSTORM - 3 DEAD - as the storm
swirled from the Southwest and Rockies across the Plains.
30th - CHINA - AVALANCHES AND FREEZING TEMPERATURES - 13 DEAD - adding to a toll of 29 dead in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia and at least eight dead in Mongolia.
Snows have also killed thousands of livestock in the Chinese province of Xinjiang as they battle northern Asia's worst winter in decades. Meteorologists were predicting that Inner Mongolia would take up to four months to thaw out. There is also concern the cold weather would aggravate the misery in North Korea, where six years of severe fuel and food shortages has left millions of people sick and weak.
29th - IRAN - HEAVY SNOW - 14 DEAD - froze to death in a western province
after snowdrifts closed an inter-city road for three days.
28th - PAKISTAN - SUGAR CANE CROPS DESTROYED BY QUAKE - DEATH TOLL NOW 15 - hundreds injured - The
earthquake broke the land, causing water which was carrying sand and salt to
cover the farms and to disable them for at least three years.
28th - PORTUGAL - LANDSLIDES AND DROWNING - at least 5 DEAD
in the wake of violent storms.
28th - MOZAMBIQUE - FRESH FLOODING - 4 DEAD - thousands more left
homeless and large areas of farmland destroyed. Mozambique is still recovering
from floods early last year which devastated the southern and central regions of
the country, killing 700 people and causing damage estimated at $600 million.
28th - FRENCH ALPS - AVALANCHE - 4 DEAD - Rescuers managed to dig out a group
of 3 skiers who all later died - Another French skier died after falling into
a crevasse in the Mont Blanc area of the French Alps
28th - INDIA - SEVEN-YEAR OLD BOY PULLED OUT ALIVE TODAY after nearly 60 hours in the debris of India's devastating earthquake, as rescuers searched for more survivors of a disaster feared to have killed 20,000 people. Two hours later his mother was also pulled out alive. Latest aftershock measured about 6.0, but the number of aftershocks per hour have reduced from 10 to 2.5.
27th - INDIA - DEATH TOLL RISES TO MORE THAN 10,000 - Officials now fear 15,000 may have perished in the most
powerful earthquake to convulse India in half a century and authorities said
the toll could climb further, with thousands still trapped under rubble. Panic
gripped the shattered city of Bhuj today as survivors struggled to flee. There was already a severe
shortage of food, water and fuel. Aftershocks from the quake -- estimated at
nearly 200 by seismology experts -- added to the unease. Both the intensity and location of Friday's killer quake had surprised geologists. Most of the
major earthquakes to rock India occur elsewhere, along what is known as
the Himalayan Alpine Belt.
27th - JAPAN - HEAVY SNOW - 2 DEAD - snow blanketed the Japanese capital,
blocking roads and railways and canceling about 400 domestic flights. Conditions
are expected to worsen.
26th - MEXICO - POPOCATEPTL VOLCANO - sent up a cloud of steam
and ash Friday, and scientists recorded low-level seismic activity. The cloud
billowed 2 miles above the crater, partially obscuring the 17,886-foot summit
and sending ash raining down on nearby towns.
26th - MOZAMBIQUE - 3 DAYS OF TORRENTIAL RAIN - 2 DEAD -
7,600 have lost their homes in the southern African country that was hit
early last year by devastating floods.
26th - MEXICO - MODERATE 5.0 EARTHQUAKE - shuddered through
southern coastal Mexico today. No damage or injuries were reported.
26th - INDIA - 7.9 EARTHQUAKE - 130 reported DEAD - shook the
country from north to south. Several buildings collapsed and
phone lines went dead in the Indian state of Gujarat after tremors
were felt for about 30 seconds. It was India's biggest earthquake since
1956. Scores of people were injured and are trapped in collapsed buildings.
26th - PAKISTAN - STRONG 6.2 EARTHQUAKE - 2 DEAD.
25th - BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA - STRONG RAIN AND HAILSTORM - 5 DEAD. The storm rained down about 60 inches of rain in 4 and a half hours.
25th - SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA - HEAT WAVE - has broken a
61-year old record by scoring 22 days in a row with the temperature
above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). The weather has also
sparked wild storms and torrential rain which has left 2 DEAD.
24th - BOLIVIA - A MONTH OF HEAVY RAIN AND MORE EXPECTED
- 2 DEAD - 20,000 people left homeless. Their government has declared
almost half the country a natural disaster zone.
23rd - INNER MONGOLIA - STRING OF MISFORTUNE: It began last winter with a blizzard that buried this region under an unusually thick blanket of snow. Then a summer drought parched the land, turning green prairies a dusty yellow brown. The plague of locusts came next, consuming much of what grass stubble remained. And in autumn, cyclone-like winds tore up homes and tossed small goats into the air.
Now nature has inflicted another catastrophe on the unlucky herders of Inner Mongolia's vast Xilin Gol grassland. A deadly snowstorm struck as the year began, leaving behind a frigid moonscape dotted with herds of sheep frozen into ice statues, homes buried in a pale yellow mix of sand and snow and nearly a half-million people short of food in temperatures more than 60 degrees below freezing and 39 dead so far.
23rd -POPOCATEPTL VOLCANO - BLASTED OUT MORE ASH AND STEAM 1 mile above the crater.
Gritty ash showered nearby towns, including Puebla, a city of 1.2 million people 25 miles east of the crater. More ominous was a small mudslide of volcanic ash down the Huiloac canyon that leads to the town of Santiago Xalitzintla.
23rd - SIBERIA - ENDURING ITS WORST WINTER IN AT LEAST THREE DECADES - Week after week, temperatures have been dipping to 50 below zero. Siberians
are accustomed to the cold, but they were completely unprepared for record-
breaking temperatures this low.
22nd - POPOCATEPETL VOLCANO, MEXICO - ERUPTION - The volcano that towers
over the Mexico City region shot rocks and a plume of ash and smoke more
than five miles high Monday, alarming people who had been evacuated from
nearby villages a month before. The mushroom-shaped plume was one of the
largest since the 17,886-foot volcano began a cycle of eruptions in 1994 after
decades of relative dormancy. The eruption sent rocks flying from the crater
and caused a flow of ash three miles down the volcano's canyons.
22nd - RUSSIA - SEVERE COLD - 16 DEAD of hypothermia in Moscow over the
past week and 114 were hospitalized because of the cold. The deaths
brought to 104 the number of people who have died of hypothermia in
the capital since Oct. 10, 2000.
22nd - THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE IS WARMING FASTER THAN EXPECTED
and evidence is mounting that human activity is responsible. The decade of the
1990s was the hottest decade of the last century and the warming in this century
is warmer than anything in the last 1,000 years in the Northern Hemisphere.
22nd - EL SALVADOR - 3 MORE BODIES FOUND, EARTHQUAKE
DEATH TOLL RAISES TO 710. 141,000 Salvadoran homes destroyed
and 750,000 people left homeless. Three small aftershocks were recorded
in El Salvador on yesterday, bringing the total number since last Saturday's
quake to 1,927 - nearly all of them strong enough to be felt. The quake
has also caused more than 300 aftershocks in nearby Nicaragua, the
latest one yesterday.
21st - RUSSIA - COLDEST WINTER IN 3 DECADES - 11 DEAD - At
least 11 people froze to death over the last 10 days alone in the Irkutsk region.
And a new plunge in temperatures is expected.
21st - INDONESIA - LANDSLIDES - 51 DEAD - slammed into several villages in remote islands.
20th - MONGOLIA - BATTERED BY THE WORST WINTER STORMS IN OVER 50
YEARS - the problem is compounded by this harsh winter coming on top
of a long summer drought and another bad winter last year.
20th - CALIFORNIA - 2nd DAY OF ROLLING BLACKOUTS -
shut down businesses, dimmed households and even threatened California's citrus crop.
People were trapped in elevators and traffic was snarled. Supermarkets
were crowded with customers buying flashlights and firewood. If a solution
isn't found soon, the current problems might pale in comparison to what's
coming. The state could find itself with an even bigger gap between demand
and supply in the summer months when usage traditionally peaks. Right now
"it promises to be the summer from hell."
20th - EL SALVADOR - this was the 18th major earthquake in Central America
since 1990. In Central America, where significant earthquakes occur at the
rate of two a year, the importance of training communities to respond in
disaster situations - techniques of extrication, reinforcing of housing, etc.
- cannot be overemphasized. The same mistakes keep being repeated.
20th - EL SALVADOR - RAINS SWEEPING IN THREATEN TO UNLEASH FRESH AVALANCHES of earth and boulders onto the unstable ground being occupied
by thousands of peasant villagers left homeless by the quake. An estimated
200,000 Salvadoreans urgently needed food on Friday, and relief workers
begged the rest of the world for more aid. Emergency workers said fear was
also growing of epidemics of such diseases as cholera in scores of increasingly
overcrowded refugee camps and throughout mountain villages.
19th - EL SALVADOR - OVER 700 NOW CONFIRMED DEAD - People are concerned that the quake will trigger volcanic eruptions. Experts say there are two volcanoes that have shown
some activity, but they believe fear about them is misplaced. Some of the
volcanoes have very steep walls in the craters, and some of those walls
collapsed because of the earthquake. And then the dust formed and flew
out of the craters and people were afraid, thinking those were gasses from lava.
19th - FLORIDA - FACING ONE OF THE WORST DROUGHTS AND FIRE THREATS EVER - The combination of a nearly three-year drought, one of the worst droughts of the past
100 years, and freezes across the state have also left the state in desperately dry
conditions ripe for wildfires. Since the first of the year, with the worst of the dry
season still months away, 338 fires have swept across 11,743 acres. That
compares to less than 3,000 acres last year and fewer than 1,000 acres the
year before in the same time period.
18th - ANTARCTICA - Chunks of ice have recently splintered from
Antarctica. Iincluding one the size of Connecticut that had hovered along
the coast for hundreds of years and disintegrated in less than a decade. A
new study finds how even a slight increase in temperature can
lead to serious melting. A NASA computer and historical records to
conclude that many other areas of Antarctica could face a similar future.
It is a matter of great concern because massive melting of the glaciers at
the bottom of the world could cause the seas to rise globally,
inundating low-lying areas.
18th - AUSTRALIA - SEVERE STORMS - 1 DEAD - A 22 year-old man
died when he was electrocuted by a fallen powerline and nearly 30 people
were reported injured as storms wreaked havoc over eastern Australia overnight - Brisbane has
been declared a natural disaster area.
18th - EL SALVADOR - AFTERSHOCKS ABATING - over $1 billion in earthquake damage estimated - Authorities mounted a new rescue mission
near the summit of the 1,893-meter San Salvador Volcano
after workers at a nearby television tower reported hearing screams
coming from the crater below. Six Salvadoran tourists were rescued from
inside the crater 3 days ago, but eight peasants who used the area to grow
corn, cilantro and flowers had been presumed dead after the quake
toppled a rim of the crater where they cultivated their crops. These peasants have not been found.
18th - TANZANIA - HEAVY RAINS CAUSED A LANDSLIDE - at least 15 buried and feared dead.
17th - NICARAGUA - 5.3 EARTHQUAKE - at about 1 a.m.sent residents of the capital, Managua, running into the streets. The
quake cracked walls and shook buildings slightly, but
no deaths or injuries were reported.
16th - CENTRAL AND NORTHERN ASIA - COLD WAVE - has sent temperatures plunging. At least nine people died of hypothermia in SIBERIA last week, where the mercury fell to the lowest temperatures in 50 years, at times dropping to minus 57 degrees. Six others were killed in house fires caused by faulty heaters. In Moscow, 19 died of hypothermia last week, bringing the city's death toll for this cold season to 127 so far, compared to 199 during the whole of last winter. The freezing weather has also gripped the Korean peninsula and Japan. In the South Korean capital, Seoul, the mercury dropped to minus 27 degrees, while in Nagasaki in south-western Japan, 13 centimetres of snow fell, the first time it has snowed there for 34 years. Aid agencies hold fears that Mongolia is facing the worst humanitarian crisis in its modern history.
16th - SUMATRA - 6.3 EARTHQUAKE - shook Indonesia's western island, but while there was panic, there were no immediate reports of casualties
16th - EL SALVADOR - Residents of Las Colinas had pleaded with Congress and gone to the
Supreme Court - without success - to block the construction of mansions
on the hillside above them, saying the lack of ground cover left those below
vulnerable to landslides. Saturday's quake loosened that hillside, sending dirt
raining on the homes below and bringing down some of the mansions.
15th - EL SALVADOR - EARTHQUAKE DEATH TOLL RISES - 60 DEAD - 2,412
people were injured and more than 45,000 houses were damaged or
destroyed. Although the largest number of deaths appeared to be in Las
Colinas, the quake caused 185 landslides across El Salvador.
15th - TURKEY - 4.2 EARTHQUAKE - struck Istanbul, awakening
most people in fear and sending some panicked residents into streets despite
bitter cold. No damage or injuries were reported.
15th - AUSTRALIA - SEVERE WINDS - 1 DEAD
15th - FLORIDA - 2 FLOODS AND A FREEZE over the past three months -
south Miami-Dade County has suffered its worst agricultural losses since Hurricane Andrew, nearly $260 million of crops destroyed.
15th - EL SALVADOR - AFTERSHOCKS - 1200 MISSING AND PRESUMED DEAD - Few people are now being pulled from the wreckage in the suburb of Santa Tecla. As many as 500 middle-class homes there are buried under a mudslide now baked as hard as cement. A wave of 800 aftershocks, the largest was 5.4, rattled buildings and set off fresh landslides today, frustrating rescuers in their search for survivors. One 80-year-old woman died from hundreds of stings after swarms of bees raged around hills after Saturday's quake and attacked several people.
14th - ITALY - SNOWSLIDE - 2 DEAD - in the Italian Alps near Aosta.
13th - CENTRAL AMERICA and southern MEXICO - 7.6 EARTHQUAKE - 295 DEAD SO FAR - 1500 are missing and thousands injured. This earthquake caused substantial damage.
13th - GREECE - FIERCE STORMS - 2 DEAD - drowned and six more were missing - dozens of homes flooded.
11th - RUSSIA - RECORD FREEZE.
11th - CANADA - AVALANCHES - 3 DEAD, in the first two weeks of this year alone,
and many more have been rescued – frantically dug out of metres
of snow. The risk of avalanches is higher than normal right now.
11th - INDIA - DROUGHT - years of no rain devastate livestock, crops. There is
no relief expected from the drought this year and the government is predicting that even urban areas will be affected.
11th - SUDAN - SEVERE DROUGHT - at least 900,000 people at risk of famine.
10th - VANUATU - 6.9 EARTHQUAKE - rocked the Pacific island nation
but there were no reports of damage.
10th - ALASKA - 6.7 EARTHQUAKE - no significant damage or tidal wave threat was reported. The earthquake was strongest in the U.S. in more than a year. There's been a heightened activity near Kodiak to have this many near-magnitude 7 events. This is a place
along the subduction zone where the plates aren't moving very fast relative to each other.
10th - MONGOLIA - FREAK SNOW STORMS - 8 DEAD - and half a million animals are feared dead in its second consecutive winter disaster.
9th - ARGENTINA - POWERFUL STORMS - 4 DEAD - forcing hundreds to evacuate their homes and leaving some 580,000 without electricity.
9th - NORTHEAST ASIA (SOUTH KOREA, CHINA, INNER MONGOLIA, MONGOLIA, JAPAN) - SNOWSTORMS - 113 DEAD - Parts of Japan seeing some 56 cm (22 inches) of snow - the heaviest snowfall for January in 65 years. Thousands of people are starving in northern China, cut off from food and supplies for more than a week after a devastating New Year's Day
snow-and-sand storm ripped through the region.Yellow snow blanketed Inner Mongolia which is facing its second devastating winter in a row.
9th - INDIA - COLD WAVE - 68 DEAD of hypothermia.
9th - TANZANIA - A WEEK OF DAILY EARTH TREMORS - has injured three people
and left at least 500 people from six villages homeless. They have been having
about 6 tremors a day for the last week.
9th - INDIA - EARTHQUAKES - has been experiencing a series of tremors for the past month.
8th - ITALY and SWITZERLAND - Unusually warm winter, the entire region bordering on Italy has been placed under HIGH AVALANCHE ALERT.
7th - SOUTH KOREA - HEAVIEST SNOWFALL IN 20 YEARS - 1 DEAD - 3 MISSING - up to 39 inches blanketed the mountainous country, property damage was estimated at $149 million. Icy road conditions have killed another 10 people and injured 270. More than a million stock animals, mostly chickens, have also been killed.
7th - INDIA - 4.8 EARTHQUAKE - 1 DEAD - a child was crushed to death when a wall collapsed, and injured two other people. An unspecified number of structures in the coastal region were damaged by the shaking. The same region was jolted by a damaging quake in mid-December.
7th - FRANCE - RECORD AMOUNTS OF FLOODWATER - the third wave within
a month to hit low-lying towns on the northwestern tip of France.
7th - PORTUGAL - FLOODING - 4 DEAD. Floods also swept through northern SPAIN.
Meteorologists blamed the floods on an unusually warm winter, which has also raised avalanche alerts in northern Italy and Switzerland.
7th - NORTHERN CHINA - DEVASTATING SNOW-AND-SAND STORM on New Year's Day - 1000's are starving , along with their livestock.
6th - BANGLADESH - COLD SPELL - 30 DEAD over the last 5 days.
6th - KAZAKHSTAN, CENTRAL ASIA - COLD SNAP - 3 DEAD - temperatures falling to as low as minus 52 Celsius (minus 61.6 Fahrenheit).
6th - SWITZERLAND - AVALANCHE - unknown number buried and feared dead - two cars hurled off a mountain road.
6th - ITALIAN ALPS - AVALANCHE - 2 DEAD - climbers swept to their deaths on the sheets of ice that will serve as the backdrop for next weekend's World Cup of ice climbing.
6th - ITALY - has been deluged by FLOODING for more than two weeks. More than 10 percent of the historic city of Venice underwater. The floods have been triggered by exceptionally high tides that are not predicted to subside in coming days.
6th - Northern AUSTRALIA - FLOODS covered an area almost twice as large as
Scotland - airlifts of food, medical
supplies and mail to stranded cattle stations continue.
6th - Seven people died trying to put out scrubland fires that have
destroyed more than 4 million acres (1.6 million hectares) of land in
central ARGENTINA over the past month.
6th - PHILIPPINES - 5.6 EARTHQUAKE - believed to be an aftershock of the magnitude 6.6 tremor that hit the region on New Year's Day. The quake was triggered by movement in the Philippine Trench, a fault line which runs along the country's southeastern Pacific coast.
5th - ARGENTINA - SCRUBLAND FIRES STARTED BY ELECTRICAL STORMS - 8 DEAD - the fires have destroyed more than 4 million ares of land over the past month.
5th - INDIA - COLD - 68 DEAD.
4th - JAPAN - 5.3 EARTHQUAKE - strong enough to shake homes, the second tremor in the region in three days, but there were
no reports of damage or casualties.
3rd - JAMAICA - Heavy rain and strong winds, flooding roads,
setting off landslides and knocking down trees.
3rd - JAPAN - 5.1 EARTHQUAKE- rattled homes, injuring a woman who was trapped beneath fallen lockers in a ski resort restaurant in the city of Shiozawa. The quake, which was followed by a magnitude 3.8 aftershock less than two hours later, was the second to hit the region within two days.
2nd - LOS ANGELES - INCREASED QUAKE RISK - New Study Reveals Basin of
Soft Sediment like Jell-O Under Los Angeles. The ground beneath
Southern CALFORNIA shows one of its most populous areas could be at greater
risk of earthquake damage than previously realized. The study also suggests the
presence of an immense, ramplike crack stretching under the San Gabriel
Mountains that could be the deep generator of earthquakes along several
Southern California faults.
1st - Coastal communities in CALIFORNIA and elsewhere - are at risk of being swept
away by TSUNAMIS generated by undersea landslides near to shore.
1st - WALES - BEACH LANDSLIDE - 1 DEAD - 1 injured - 8 cars swept over an embankment.
1st - SPAIN - SEVERE SNOWSTORMS - 6 DEAD - 6 missing.
31st - FRANCE - AVALANCHE - 1 skier DEAD.
30th - FRANCE - HEAVY SNOW AND RAIN - 1 DEAD - a child was killed
while sleeping when the roof over his head collapsed from a buildup of snow.
24th - BRAZIL - MUDSLIDES CAUSED BY TORRENTIAL RAIN - 71 DEAD -
2000 homeless - one of their worst disasters.
11th - VIETNAM - TYPHOON LINGLING - 20 DEAD - more than 1000 homes
destroyed.
4th - SOUTH AFRICA - BRUSHFIRE - 19 DEAD.
2nd - GUATEMALA - DROUGHT-FUELED FAMINE - 41 DEAD.
22nd - JAPAN - TYPHOON PABUK - 7 DEAD.
17th - JAMAICA - TROPICAL STORM CHANTAL - 2 DEAD - by lightning.
24TH - PHILIPPINES - MAYON VOLCANO - alert level raised to highest level -
eruption is in progress with fast-moving lava flows. 60,000 may be evacuated. - The volcano could spit lava and red-hot boulders for several days.
1st - HAITI - TOXIC FRUIT - 39 DEAD - Hungry residents in northern towns
near Haiti's second- largest city, Cap-Haitien, started eating ackee fruit after
heavy flooding in November wiped out much of the area's crops and livestock. A two-day rainfall caused at least nine deaths and destroyed about a dozen
homes. Ackee is a popular fruit used in Caribbean cuisine that is potentially
toxic when unripe. In extreme cases, Haitians have also been known to eat
pancakes made of clay and other inedible items.