Natural disasters II:

Some significant disasters

Five major earthquakes have been recorded in Haiti so far...

* 1751 Port-au-Prince earthquake (October 18): French historian Moreau de Saint-Mary, claimed that "only one masonry building had not collapsed", in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital city.

* 1770 Port-au-Prince earthquake (June 3): The city was levelled in this magnitude 7.5 quake, which killed over 200 people.

* May 7, 1842: An earthquake destroyed the city of Cap-Hantien and other towns in the north of Haiti and the Dominican Republic; this earthquake also destroyed the Sans-Souci Palace. Around 10,000 people were killed.

* 1946 Dominican Republic earthquake (August 4): This 8.0-magnitude quake which shook Haiti, produced a tsunami that killed 1,790 people.

* 2010 Haiti earthquake (January 12):. The epicentre of this magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake was near Laogrne, approximately 25 km (16 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, at a depth of 13 km (8.1 miles).

The United States Geological Survey recorded a series of at least 33 aftershocks, 14 of which were between magnitudes 5.0 and 5.9.

The International Red Cross estimated that about three million people were affected by the quake; the Haitian Government reported that between 217,000 and 230,000 people had been identified as dead, an estimated 300,000 injured, and 1,000,000 homeless. The death toll was very high.

Floods and quakes

* The 2002 Kolka-Karmadon rock ice slide

* The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake

* The 2010 Chile earthquake

* The 2010 Yushu earthquake

* The Huang He (Yellow River) in China floods particularly often. The Great Flood of 1931 caused between 800,000 and 4,000,000 deaths.

* The Great Flood of 1993 was one of the most costly floods in United States history.

* The 1998 Yangtze River floods, also in China, left 14 million people homeless.

* The 2000 Mozambique flood covered much of the country for three weeks, resulting in thousands of deaths, and leaving the country devastated for years afterward.

Historical droughts

* In 1900 in India, killing between 250,000 and 3.25 million.

* In 1921-22 in Soviet Union, over five million perished from starvation due to this drought.

* In 1928-30 in Northwest China. Over 3 million deaths by famine.

* In 1936 and 1941 in the Sichuan Province of China where five million and two and a half million deaths were reported respectively.

* As of 2006, States of Australia including Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland had been under drought conditions for five to ten years. The drought is beginning to affect urban area populations for the first time,now.

* In 2006 Sichuan Province China experienced its worst drought in modern times with nearly eight million people and over seven million cattle facing water shortages.

Wildfires and pandemics

Wildfires and uncontrolled fires burning in wildland areas. Common causes include lightning and drought but wildfires may also be started by human negligence or arson. They can be a threat to those in rural areas and also wildlife.

A notable case of wildfire was the 2009 Victorian bushfires in Australia.

* The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, killing an estimated 50 million people worldwide.

* The 1957-58 Asian flu pandemic, which killed an estimated one million people.

* The 1968-69 Hong Kong flu pandemic.

* The 2002-3 SARS pandemic.

* The AIDS epidemic, beginning in 1959.

* The H1N1 Influenza (Swine Flu) Pandemic 2009.

Facts: Internet