This path took in a large, built-up and very populated part of the UK which exacerbated the damage caused. Synoptic chart - 2) Environmental impacts - An estimated 15 million trees were uprooted, countless more were damaged in the few hours that the Great Storm, with winds recorded at speeds in excess of 160 km/h (100mph; 86 knots) wreaked havoc across woodlands and plantations. At Toys Hill, the highest point in Kent, about 98% of the woodland - including many veteran beech trees that had adorned the hillside for centuries - was lost. Copperas Wood nature reserve in Essex lost almost three-quarters of its ancient woodland, which primarily consisted of coppiced sweet chestnut and hornbeam. Human impacts – Many buildings collapsed, 18 lives were taken and caravan parks were wrecked.
The initial impact was devastating which left about 300,000 people homeless out of a population of about 410,000. Many of the people were evacuated to nearby cities, and the others lived in makeshift tents on the beach of North beach. In fact years later in 1908 these refugee camps were still in operation. The overall cost of the damages was estimated at the time to be 400 million US Dollars (around 8.2 Billion present Dollars). The fires that were a direct result from the main shock and the aftershocks were just as damaging because of the uncontrollable burning from ruptured gas lines.
Ike was a huge economic burden to the U.S. and “estimates suggest Ike may become one of the costliest hurricanes on record” (FEMA 10). Hurricanes are known for causing severe structural damage to houses, but also have an effect on many businesses as well. Many people had to evacuate and be out of work for up to two weeks due to power outage and debris. Also, some businesses were damaged by flooding and wind, which caused the loss of crucial business equipment. Businesses were flooded along the Texas coast and lost all of their vital technology such as computers, telephones, and other office equipment.
Three fourths of the residents stayed and endured these conditions for nearly a decade. Over 75% of the nation was affected, including twenty-seven states that were severely impacted. With dire estimates concerning the loss of valuable topsoil in the United States, public concern began to increase over the future of American agriculture. People were faced with death and disease along with the other issues the drought and dust storms caused. In 1935 Congress passed the Soil Conservation Act, which squarely placed the Federal government in the role of promoting farmland conservation for the first time.
Criminally Negligent at the Dam On May 30, heavy rains started, the worst ever recorded in the area, six to ten inches in less than twenty-four hours. Rivers rose and downed telegraph lines, cutting off any fast connections of warning. On the last day in the May of 1889, the South Fork Dam burst, sending millions of gallons of water with the force of Niagara Falls and tons of debris, such as houses, barns, animals, and rocks and dirt, onto the city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The wave, forty feet high and a half a mile wide, destroyed Johnstown in about ten minutes. Many of the people were crushed by debris or caught in barbed wire from the nearby Cambia Iron Works.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) (ON SCREEN) Avalanche Dogs STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Every year, more than 150 people worldwide are killed in avalanches. The most common causes of death are suffocation, trauma, and, to a lesser degree, hypothermia. Since the human body is three times denser than avalanche debris, we sink more quickly and once the avalanche stops, it gets so packed, it`s like hardened concrete. That`s why rescue dogs are so important. It would take rescue workers four hours to search a little over two acres.
It then spread through China, killing approximately 35 million people. For reasons unknown (perhaps global cooling allowed it to thrive), the plague began a massive outbreak in all directions that eventually affected most of the world. It spread along Chinese trade routes and reached Europe in October 1347 when a fleet of Genoese merchant ships from Caffa landed in
states. At the same time, snow, ice, and several entire glaciers on the mountain melted, forming a series of large lahars (volcanic mudslides) that reached as far as the Columbia River. Less severe outbursts continued into the next day only to be followed by other large but not as destructive eruptions later in 1980. By the time the ash settled, 57 people (including innkeeper Harry Truman and geologist David A. Johnston) and thousands of animals were dead, hundreds of square miles reduced to wasteland, over a billion U.S. dollars in damage had occurred ($2.74 billion in 2007 dollars[1]), and the face of Mount St. Helens was scarred with a huge crater on its north side. At the time of the eruption, the summit of Mount St. Helens was owned by the Burlington Northern Railroad, but afterward the land passed to the United States Forestry Service.
The U.S. capital shut down on Wednesday ahead of a fierce snowstorm that had blanketed the Midwest, cut power to about 50,000 homes and businesses and forced hundreds of flights to be canceled. Jokingly referred to as "snowquestration" in a nod to the federal budget crunch, the wintry weather prompted storm warnings for much of the Ohio River Valley and the mid-Atlantic states and as far south as Georgia as the storm moved east, the National Weather Service said. The Washington area could get slammed by its biggest snowfall in about two years, with 6 to 12 inches expected, the service said. The government, already hit by $85 billion in budget cuts that took effect last Friday, ordered 375,000 federal workers in the Washington area to stay
The famine began in September 1845, it was an airborne fungus which killed the much needed crops and in turn caused the migration from Ireland. Throughout the famine years, nearly a million Irish arrived in the United States. Famine immigrants were the first big wave of poor refugees ever to arrive in the U.S. Just about all of the immigrants to America arrived by boat and ship. These ships were often referred to as “coffin ships” due to the poor condition and that a lot of the time when or if they made the 3000 mile journey they were saturated with disease and death. http://www1.assumption.edu/ahc/irish/Irish_emigrants_Mersey.jpgIrish immigrants boarding a “coffin ship” to America in