Distasters

1. BURNING OF ROME A.D. 64 Rome, Italy Fire broke out near Circus Maximus, an

arena for chariot races. Everything was made of wood, so it

burned quickly. It lasted 9 days and lots of “looting”

occurred.

2. ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS A.D. 79 Naples, Italy Mountain erupted sending ash,

rock, and fire into the air - explain a “Ground Surge”.

The ash in the air was so thick that it appeared to be night in the afternoon.

It left us with an accurate account of what life was like.

3. BLACK DEATH

  1347 All over Europe AKA Bubonic Plague. Disease carried by small squirrel-like animals

called marmots. marmots carried fleas, fleas infected rats, rats got on boats, boats carried sailors, sailors came to ports and disease spread.

It lasted four years.

4. POTATO FAMINE

1840’s. Ireland. Potatoes were the number one crop in

Ireland. The plant disease that infected crops

came from America. People fled the country or they went

hungry, lost income and homes. The potato crops were ruined overnight.

5. GREAT CHICAGO FIRE October 1871 Chicago, Illinois. Fire began in a barn, many

explanations - Mrs. O’Leary’s cow knocked over a lantern.

Most of the business district (downtown) of Chicago was destroyed.

300 people died in the fire.

6. BLIZZARD OF 1888 March 1888. New York City. Great White Hurricane. Very suddenly a blizzard hit

with 85 mile per hour winds and it dropped over 20 inches of snow in two days.

400 people died - most froze to death

The Saturday that the blizzard started was 50 degrees and sunny and weathermen said it would remain nice through Tuesday.

7. THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD May 1889. Johnstown, Pennsylvania There was heavy rain for two straight

days into the largest man-made lake in the country.

It caused a dam to break sending twenty million tons of water toward Johnstown.

2,200 bodies were recovered, another 1000 were never found.

There was no warning because rain had taken down the telegraph lines.

8. SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE 1906 & 1989. San Francisco, California. City sits on a fault line - the San

Andreas Fault ( Pacific and North American plates meet).

1906 - 28,000 buildings fell, but most problems were caused by fires from damage to gas and power lines.

1989 - During the fourth game of the World Series at Candlestick Park - canceled because of fear that the stadium would collapse.

9. THE HINDENBURG

May 6, 1937. New Jersey. Dirigible - A hot air balloon that can be

steered. Zeppelin - The metal frame that holds a

bag of gas - hydrogen. It exploded from an electrical storm - 33

died. It was longer than three football fields.

10. EXPLOSION IN SIBERIA

June 1908 Siberia - remote section. Major explosion - equal to 30 tons of

dynamite. Knocked down trees for 25 square miles. Cause is a mystery.

11. THE TITANIC

April 15, 1912. Atlantic Ocean. Ship took 3 years to build - passenger

ship - unsinkable. Maiden Voyage from Great Britain

through North Atlantic, hit an iceberg. 700 of 2,200 passengers survived.

12. DUST BOWL

Winter 1932 Great Plains - USA Drought - no rain Hurricane strength winds created

horrible dust storms. Half a million people had to leave their

homes - all crops lost.

13. BOMBER HITS EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

July 1945 New York It was a WWII B-25 Bomber. There were low clouds and the

pilot was advised to turn back. He kept going and crashed into

the 79th floor. All on board the plane died (3)

and 11 people in the building. $1 million in damage.

14. KILLER FOG IN LONDON December 1952 Mass of warm air moved into London

trapping moist air below. No breezes All airborne particles and soot remained in

the air. 4,000 died from breathing the polluted air

& 4,000 more died from related causes. Positive result - They passed the Clean Air

Act in 1956.

15. ANDREA DORIA

July 25, 1956 Going to NY from Italy. Nickname "Grand Dame of the Sea” A Swedish-American liner called the “Stockholm”

hit it and 51 people were killed by the impact. DID YOU KNOW: It is a mystery how the two

ships collided - both having radar - Explanation - if ships are on a collision course - both are to steer to the left - sea rule - Andrea Doria went right.

16. THE APOLLO TRAGEDY

January 27, 1967 Florida To be the first manned mission Apollo space

project. Disaster before they left the ground. Electrical fire in the Command Module. All three astronauts were killed - Grissom, White,

Chaffee DID YOU KNOW: Fireman arrived within three

minutes of the hatch being opened - too late (took too long to open the hatch from outside)

17. MOUNT ST. HELENS ERUPTION

May 11, 1980 Washington (State) Volcano erupted sending ash 12-15 miles into

the air. 62 people died People who refused to leave their homes

were buried under hundreds of pounds of ash.

DID YOU KNOW: Trace amount of volcanic ash were carried around the world.

18. KILLER BEES

First arrived in 1956 South and Central America 46 African Queen Bees were brought to Brazil

for an experiment. Attack in swarms for any small disturbance Several hundred people have been killed since

1956. DID YOU KNOW: Unless the cool climate has an

effect on them, they are just about a hundred miles from Texas and could spread into the US.

19. CHALLENGER DISASTER

January 1986 USA (Florida) First space shuttle ever built that could be re-

used. 7 people died On it’s tenth mission, one minute into the

flight, it burst into flames and exploded. DID YOU KNOW: They had the first ordinary

person on that flight, a teacher, Christa McAuliffe.

20. XENIA TORNADO

April 3, 1974 Ohio 300 mile per hour winds. 33 people died, 1600 injured. 150 tornadoes touched down that same

day all over the US. DID YOU KNOW: It tore the side wall of a

house off, but left all the furniture and picture intact.

21. CHERNOBYL

April 28, 1986 Kiev, Russia Explosion & fire at a nuclear power plant (no

meltdown). High levels of radiation were released. Russian did not tell other countries that it

had happened. DID YOU KNOW: 300 people have died and

as many as 30,000 may die as a result of their exposure to radiation.

21. BHOPAL INCIDENT

1984 Bhopal, India Union Carbide owned a pesticide factory there. It allowed poisonous gas to leak out of a

storage tank. 2,000 people died, others blinded or foaming

at the mouth. 180,000 people were treated at hospitals.

DID YOU KNOW: Factory was closed but reopened a couple days later.