Hurricane Sandy destroyed millions of homes, brought a bunch of sand onto the roads, and killed 209 people. Sandy caused $52.4 billion in damages. Another hurricane that has hit the US is Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina caused subsequent floods and caused $81 billion in damaged. Katrina also killed at least 1,833 people in the time that it took to cross most of eastern North America.
Instructor: Prof. Burdett Topic: The Dust Bowl and The Great Depression. The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to The United States and Canadian Prairie Land from 1930 to 1936. This phenomenon was caused by severe drought followed by extensive farming without crop rotation and fallow fields. Deep plowing of the virgin topsoil of the Great Plains displaced the natural deep-rooted grasses that normally kept the soil in place and trapped moisture even during the periods of drought and high winds (Worster, Pg80-82). Millions of acres of farmland became useless and hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes and migrated to California and to other states.
It was the major destruction in Europe over the decades. It injured 14 people and a fireman who was fighting hard over the blaze. They were soon treated in a nearby hospital. The damage done by the fire to the chemical factory could not be restored. It polluted the whole river as the chemicals flowed down the river Rhine.
Then on May 18, 1980 it happened, 57 people were killed, over 7,000 animals were killed as well. The eruption destroyed entire forest, leaving only brunt tree trunks all flatten in the same direction. The amount of timber destroyed was enough to make 300,000 two-bedroom homes and the mud that traveled down the mountain destroyed about 200 houses and clogging up shipping channels in the Columbia River. The volcano itself change shape, poisonous gas and ash was released from the volcano ash poured down on 15 states within days and gas from the volcano and circled the world. It
The secondary effects include the fires that broke out all over the city of Kobe, the congestion and chaos on the roads, the closure of businesses and the problem of homelessness. Many more people died in the fires that followed the earthquake. Problems were made worse by the large number of aftershocks (over 1,300). Many of the older, wooden houses completely collapsed. Fire, triggered by broken gas pipes and sparks from severed electrical cables, caused a huge amount of damage, destroying at least 7,500 wooden homes.
The impacts of the storm were great, with wind speeds recorded of up to 120mph in Sussex and Kent. Over 15 million trees throughout England had blown over in the course of the day; a factor of this was due to most of the trees not losing their leaves before the storm had hit and also the antecedent conditions made the ground was soft. Overall 22 lives were lost, with 19 of them in England. Schools were closed as well as 150,000 houses were without telephone communications. A further 5 million homes were left with no electricity and many houses were a victim of falling trees.
It is the state which is supposed to see to it that its citizens are fit and healthy. But in the early 19th century, none of this existed! There was no health-care, no proper diets, no clean streets... especially in the new industrial towns (Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle...) where the living conditions were worst. The child mortality was enormous. 60% of the children died before reaching the age of five (in the industrial cities)!
But on August 25, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, everything changed. The levees failed, over 75% of the city was submerged in water and over 1,800 lives were lost. By the time the storm passed, over $81 billion in physical damages had been done. It is estimated that Katrina has resulted in the loss of over 230,000 jobs in Louisiana alone. When the storm struck New Orleans and the levees failed, the low-lying lands flooded at record levels.
DEVASTATING WALKER RIVER FLOOD! In the last couple of days California and Nevada have suffered the worst floods in living memory! Normally the river flows at 650 cubic feet per second, however in the past week the river flowed more than twice that and at a devastating rate that destroyed everything in its path, including lives of two people. The flood also inundated 63,000 acres of land and cost millions in damage and additional costs due to disruptions in travel and business. The Walker River begins at a confluence where the tributaries of the West and the East Walker Rivers meet.
Secondary Effects The secondary effects were much more numerous that the primary effects. These included many systems shutting down, i.e. electricity, gas, plumbing, etc. Fires that were started by broken gas pipes and broken electrical wires, spread through the city, rapidly destroying the many wooden houses (approx. 7500 houses were destroyed).