Natural disasters have claimed thousands of lives, but terrorism, mob violence,
and workplace accidents over the years have been equally as tragic. These are
the deadliest disasters in every U.S. state, part two.
Butte, Montana, in 1917, was an industrial city with one of the world's largest mining operations.
The community was a unique and diverse one where more than 30 languages were regularly spoken. A
rotating force of 14,000 workers was down in the mines at all times. They were headed for disaster.
More than 400 workers were on the night shift at the Granite Mountain Speculator Mine on June 8,
1917, when an enormous electric cable fell deep into the mine.
The cable's insulation included highly flammable paraffin paper. So when one of
the workers brought his lantern too close, it started a deadly fire. Smoke flooded the mine,
suffocating the miners trapped inside. 168 workers were killed in the disaster.
It was early evening on March 23, 1913, and many around Omaha, Nebraska were celebrating the Easter
holiday. Suddenly the area was hit by devastating storms. An enormous cyclone carved a 4½ mile trail
through the city of Omaha and completely destroyed the new city of Ralston. Thousands of homes were
damaged or completely destroyed, hundreds were injured, and over 100 people were killed.
The tornado that struck Omaha and Ralston was not the only one to hit the state of
Nebraska that day. In fact, five tornadoes traveled across the state in strangely
parallel paths. Each was no more than 25 miles away from those on either side. One
hit Omaha. The others struck Craig, Yutan, and parts of Iowa. All told,
65 people were killed in those other storms, and hundreds more were injured.
On the morning of November 21,
1980, a fire started at the MGM Grand hotel and casino in Las Vegas.
More than 2,000 people were inside the hotel at the time the fire began. Black smoke soon poured
out of the building. Many had to be evacuated by helicopter. Ironworkers set up scaffolding
to help hotel guests escape out the windows. Two hundred firefighters worked to extinguish the
deadly blaze. The rescue efforts might have been more successful if there had been adequate fire
safety precautions in place. As it was, there were no smoke detectors or fire alarms to alert the
guests and staff to the danger. Most areas in the hotel and casino didn’t have sprinklers, either.
"Everybody was waving towels, trying to catch the rescuers' attention.
Nobody seemed to know what to do. [...] There was no way to get word to them."
The fire, which began in the hotel deli,
would be the deadliest in Nevada history, killing 87 people.
In 1938, a devastating category 2 hurricane struck New England. Winds up to 160 mph
whipped through New Hampshire. No one knew how serious the storm would be before it
reached the shore. The storm led to terrible flooding and caused a fire.
Thirteen people were killed in New Hampshire, but the damage in other states, like Rhode Island,
was just as bad or worse. Throughout New England, a total of 564 people were killed,
1,700 were injured, and 2 billion trees, 1 in every 3 in the region, were obliterated. The total
damages are believed to have cost the modern equivalent of more than $454,000,000. Almost
9,000 homes and 2,600 fishing boats were destroyed, and thousands more were damaged.
In the year 1900, a fire started in a bale of cotton and spread to the
Hoboken docks. Within 3 hours, the fire had spread a quarter of a mile,
killing more than 300 people. It would become known as "the Hoboken Horror."
The Hoboken docks were a vital part of the New Jersey and New York economy, and the warehouses
were tightly packed with goods of all kinds. How the cotton caught fire is unknown, but the bales
were stored near barrels of oil, which exploded and quickly became an inferno. Within minutes,
the Hoboken Fire Department arrived to fight the flames, but the fire moved too
fast. Workers on the pier were trapped by the blaze, and many drowned attempting to escape.
In 1913, Dawson, New Mexico was a coal mining town. The majority of the workers who lived
there were recent immigrants from Italy, Greece, Mexico, and many other countries.
"They came here in the hopes of supporting their poor families in the old country
and building a life for themselves."
In general, they lived in separate communities within Dawson.
On October 22, there was a sound like a gunshot, then the earth shook. Suddenly,
a jet of flame shot 100 feet out of the entrance to the Stag Cañon coal mine.
An explosion had been caused by coal dust within the mine.
About 25 miners made it to the exit, but hundreds of other workers were trapped inside. Underground,
many of the workers were dead, and debris was still falling. It
was so dangerous that two members of the rescue team were also killed. In total,
it’s estimated that 263 people died as a result of the disaster.
On September 11, 2001, two passenger planes, hijacked by the extremist group al Qaeda,
struck the World Trade Center in New York City.
A staggering 2,977 people were killed in the attack. And approximately
10,000 New Yorkers who were near the Twin Towers, particularly first responders,
have since been diagnosed with cancer as a result of their exposure to the toxic smoke from the
burning buildings and aircraft. It's believed the number of people who have or will die as
a result of the disaster will be eventually greater than the casualties on 9/11 itself.
In 1884, converging winds in the Southeast developed into a series of devastating
cyclones that would come to be known as the Enigma Outbreak. More than 37 tornadoes hit six states:
Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Kentucky.
In total, it's believed that the storms killed 167 people. At least 50 of those casualties were
in North and South Carolina, making the tornadoes the deadliest disaster to ever strike the area.
A century later, in 1984, another tornado outbreak hit North Carolina,
sending 24 storms ripping through North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia,
killing almost 60 people and injuring around 1,250 more. The state of North Carolina experienced the
worst damage as 11 individual tornadoes hit the state and took the lives of 42 people.
January of 1888 in North Dakota had been unusually warm, so no one was
prepared when a sudden blizzard blew in from Canada, bringing snow, wind,
and temperatures of -40°F. In some areas, the temperature dropped more than 100° in one day.
"Ice and snow blew sideways, freezing eyelids and blinding people and animals alike."
The storm killed people and livestock throughout the state. Farmers suffered
terrible losses. The storm became known as the Schoolhouse Blizzard,
because the majority of the dead were children making their way home from
school through the snow. Some of the children were saved by their teachers.
One such teacher was Minnie Freeman, who helped her entire class get to safety after the roof
of the schoolhouse was ripped clean off. Others were rescued by parents, who had to dig through
several feet of snow to find the school. The blizzard is believed to have killed 235 people.
In March, 1913, a number of deadly weather events occurred nearly simultaneously in
the Midwest. First came terrible ice storms and heavy winds. Next, devastating tornadoes
swept through. Finally, the water started to rise. In Ohio, the flooding proved deadly.
Approximately 11 inches of rain fell on Ohio in five days, as much as the region would
typically get in three months. The water topped the banks of rivers and streams all
over the state, smashing levees and sending floodwaters rushing through towns and cities.
Many drowned. Others were killed by the damage the water caused. In the city of Dayton,
which experienced particularly terrible flooding, gas lines broke,
causing terrible fires. In total, it's believed that at least 428 people were killed.
Tulsa, Oklahoma was once home to "Black Wall Street," an extremely successful
business district known as Greenwood, where Black Americans lived and worked.
"It was a place where, for African-Americans, the American Dream was working."
In 1921, a Black teenager named Dick Rowland entered an elevator operated
by a white woman named Sarah Page. Police later determined
that Howland accidentally stepped on her foot. When Page shouted,
Howland ran away. A rumor that he had sexually assaulted Page spread, and Rowland was arrested.
The Tulsa Tribune made the case a front-page story, and a mob of enraged white people,
many armed, demanded Rowland be handed over. When the police refused, the mob
rioted. Unable to get their hands on Rowland, they stormed Greenwood, looting and burning
Black-owned businesses and community buildings, including churches, hospitals, and schools.
"The airplanes was up, just raining down the bullets. And I could see them,
and I heard them. And I was so frightened."
Ultimately, they burned down more than 1,200 homes, and as many as 300 people died.
In June 1903, a sudden thunderstorm barraged the farming town of Heppner,
Oregon with hail and heavy rain. The hailstones made a racket on the roofs
of the townsfolks' homes, preventing them from hearing the roar of the oncoming floodwaters.
In one hour, the surge killed 238 people, nearly 20% of the total population of the
community of Heppner. A 1903 report from the Los Angeles Herald places the death toll at
more than 800. Exactly how many people lost their lives in the flooding was difficult to determine,
because the raging waters carried bodies for miles and buried them in mud and debris.
In 1840, an enormous rock and dirt dam was built near Johnstown,
Pennsylvania. It was the largest dam in the United States at the time,
and its construction created the country's largest man-made lake.
"It was designed to cater to the very rich clientele within the steel industry."
But by 1889, the canal system had been replaced by trains,
so the dam was rarely inspected or maintained. For the 30,000 people living in Johnstown,
this would bring calamity. At the end of May, the area experienced unusually heavy rain.
"They saw the lake level rising by an inch every ten minutes."
An engineer noticed that one of the passages that allowed water to move through the dam was
clogged, and he was unable to clear it. He attempted to warn the people of Johnstown,
but the telegraph lines had been damaged, cutting off communication.
The dam collapsed, and the entire contents of the lake,
estimated to be approximately 4.8 billion gallons, surged into Johnstown. More than
2,000 people were killed, both by the flood and by fires that started amid the debris.
On Thursday, February 20, 2003, hundreds of people gathered at the Station Nightclub in West Warwick,
Rhode Island to see the 80s rock band Great White, famous for their hit "Once Bitten, Twice Shy." As
the group came onstage, their manager set off some pyrotechnics. This sparked a deadly fire.
Neighbors had complained about the noise from the club, so the owners had the walls and at
least one of the doors lined with highly flammable soundproofing foam. As soon as the pyrotechnics
went off, the foam caught fire. Flames spread up the walls of both sides of the stage, trapping
much of the audience. A hundred people were killed in the blaze, and 200 more were injured.
"We went out on a Thursday night to listen to music [...] and a quarter
of those people didn't get to go home. Ever."
The band's manager pled guilty and both owners of the Station
Nightclub pleaded no contest to 100 counts of misdemeanor manslaughter.
In the late 1800s, Beaufort County, South Carolina, which encompasses multiple Sea Islands,
was the primary source of phosphate in the United States. Phosphate was used to make fertilizer,
and mining provided workers with a reasonable income.
The Beaufort community was mostly made up of Black families, many of them formerly
enslaved. The phosphate industry in Beaufort County was highly successful,
and many of the Sea Islanders also had thriving cash crops.
But, in 1893, a devastating storm hit the Sea Islands, obliterating the community,
ruining crops, destroying boats used to ship phosphate, leaving more than 30,000 homeless, and
killing at least 2,000 people. In the aftermath of the hurricane, an outbreak of malaria and
starvation killed many more, making it impossible to determine the final death toll of the disaster.
On June 9, 1972, South Dakota experienced unusually intense thunderstorms. Between
7 and 8 pm, the water level in nearby creeks rose,
smashing dams and flooding the surrounding area. By 10:30 pm,
officials recommended that everyone living at the lower elevations evacuate. Before 11 pm,
the Canyon Lake Dam broke, sending water surging into populated areas, particularly Rapid City.
The damage was catastrophic. The flash flood caused the modern equivalent of more
than a billion dollars worth of damage, including the destruction of 15 bridges,
thousands of cars, and 1,300 homes. Thousands were injured and 238 people died in the flood,
making it one of the deadliest flash floods in the history of the United States.
The Fraterville Mine was one of several mines in Tennessee which didn't rely on unpaid prison
labor. Instead, management hired experienced miners who were paid based on the amount of coal
they produced. Workers were able to purchase land and build homes in the local community,
where they lived alongside fellow miners and their families. Tragically, on Monday, May 19,
1902, an explosion killed almost all of the men who had lived and worked in Fraterville.
"There was no ventilation. And the methane gas built
up the entire weekend. And it just combusted."
A spark from a worker's light, possibly combined with airborne coal dust,
sparked the deadly blast. Many miners were killed by the explosion, while others were suffocated by
the gas. In a single day, the community around Fraterville had been destroyed. One man left
for work late in order to put on a warmer jacket; he was the only man in the community left alive.
The other 216 men who worked in the mine were killed, leaving behind devastated families.
Galveston Island, off the coast of Texas, was a popular vacation spot in 1900. Then,
on September 8, a Category 4 hurricane struck the island. The storm was powerful,
but some have argued that the disaster was so deadly due to an egregious lack of information.
Official reports predicted that the storm would hit Florida then travel north to New
England. The Washington DC Weather Bureau had only existed for 10 years at the time of the
Galveston Hurricane. Storms weren't yet well understood and wouldn't be until the 1940s.
The bureau's director had told local weather forecasters not to issue hurricane warnings
without communicating first with Washington. By the time they realized their mistake,
it was too late to warn Galveston of the impending disaster. The storm would
become the deadliest in U.S. history, killing between 6,000 and 12,000 people.
Just before 10:30 am on May 1, 1900, a blast echoed through Scofield,
Utah. There had been a terrible explosion at the nearby Pleasant Valley Coal Company mine.
Some miners survived the blast but were trapped underground,
awash with toxic fumes and running out of oxygen. In total, 200 workers died on that day. Many
believed that the mine had been mismanaged and there weren't enough safety procedures.
To the despair of the miners' grieving families,
the Pleasant Valley Coal Company wasn't held accountable in the official investigation. Many
of the surviving workers went on strike. Others moved away. The mine shut down in 1923. Today,
the town of Scofield is the smallest in the state of Utah, with less than 30 residents.
The fall of 1927 was unusually rainy for Vermont. In October, the state experienced an average of
150% more rain than usual, and in some regions, as much as 300% more. By November, the ground was
saturated and the rivers and streams were full. On November 2, it rained all day and all night.
On November 3, in Bolton, Vermont, the Bolton Valley Dam collapsed, leading to
19 deaths in a single boarding house. Vermont's infrastructure was no match for the rushing water,
which damaged hundreds of miles of roads and railroad tracks and destroyed more than 1,200
bridges. The total damage across the state cost the modern-day equivalent
of more than $475,000,000. Eighty-four people lost their lives in the flooding.
Only four Category 5 hurricanes have ever hit the continental U.S. One of the most violent was
Hurricane Camille in 1969. Exactly how strong the hurricane's winds were is still unknown, because
the storm destroyed the instruments designed to measure it. The storm struck Mississippi,
Tennessee, and Kentucky, then made an abrupt turn over to West Virginia and Virginia.
In a single night, Camille brought as much rain as Virginia was used
to in six months. The storm knocked out power, destroyed roads and railroads,
caused deadly floods and mudslides, and damaged almost 1,000 buildings across the state.
"It just looked like somebody had come in with a giant hand and swept everything out of sight."
In total, more than 150 people were killed by Hurricane Camille in Virginia alone.
In the summer of 2021, the Pacific Northwest experienced
a record-breaking heatwave that cost hundreds of lives.
At least 112 people died in the state of Washington alone. While the majority of the
deaths occurred in densely populated areas, like the city of Seattle, where temperatures
reached 108°F, 20 counties in Washington reported deaths due to extreme temperatures.
The Washington State Department of Health warned that the temperatures were high enough to present
a very high risk of illness for a large percentage of the population. Individuals
who are more sensitive to heat, such as the elderly and young children, and those who were
unable to hydrate and remain in cool areas, were at particular risk. Experts have warned
that potentially deadly heat waves, like the one that occurred in the Pacific Northwest in 2021,
are likely to happen more frequently and last longer as the climate crisis progresses.
In 1930, an enormous, three-mile shaft, known as the Hawk's Nest
Tunnel was being dug in West Virginia. Its path was directly through a mountain.
Hundreds of workers were brought in to bore a hole through solid rock.
The working conditions were horrendous. They were using a dry drilling technique,
which sent large quantities of dust into the poorly-ventilated tunnel
where the men were working. If someone was exposed too long they came down with
a mysterious sickness that came to be known as "tunnelitis." In truth, it was silicosis.
"My husband, Cecil Jones, died of working in the Hawk's Nest Tunnel. He contracted silicosis."
Silicosis is a debilitating lung disease that comes from
inhaling silica dust. The dust causes inflammation and scarring in the lungs.
Out of the 2,900 men who worked in the tunnel, 746 of them died of silicosis.
On October 8, 1871, the same night that Chicago burned and the Great Midwest Fires decimated
Michigan, an even deadlier blaze swept through Wisconsin. It became known as the Peshtigo Fire.
Peshtigo was a lumber town, home to an enormous sawmill. The buildings were made of wood and
the roads were coated with sawdust. The season had been unusually hot and dry. A fire started
somewhere in the woods near the small town of Sugar Bush, which was completely obliterated
in the flames. When the blaze reached Peshtigo, bringing with it temperatures of up to 2,000°F,
it killed approximately 1,200 people, making it the deadliest blaze in U.S. history.
The Union Pacific Coal Company opened multiple mines surrounding Hanna, Wyoming. On the morning
of June 30, 1903, coal gas in one of the mines ignited, causing a deadly explosion that trapped
200 men inside the mine. It's believed that a vein of coal caught fire and couldn't be
extinguished. The tunnels filled with toxic smoke. The underground fire burned for days.
Fellow miners and their families from the town of Hanna worked tirelessly to try to free those
trapped inside the mine. Experienced firefighters and doctors were brought in to help. In the end,
however, only 46 miners escaped. In total, 169 people died as a result of the disaster.