there have been a number of terrible natural disasters to have occurred in recent memory
the tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011 is one that comes to mind the total economic cost
reached over 300 billion dollars with thousands of people losing their lives
however in the grand scheme of recorded human history this event does not even crack the top 10
of worst natural disasters ever the oldest natural disaster on this list dates back to
1556 and there are natural disasters spanning all throughout the last several centuries these
natural disasters were cataclysmic fundamentally altering the areas they impacted for years to come
from earthquakes to floods here are the five worst natural disasters in recorded history
and you may be surprised to hear that the two top spots happened in the exact same area
on november 25th 1839 a destructive tropical cyclone hit the city of karinga a port town in
india while there are no official measurements of the storm it's estimated the surge of the
storm was 40 feet it came through the harbor city quickly destroying 20 000 vessels in
its wake and leading to 300 000 individuals losing their lives this actually wasn't the
first time the city had been hit by a cyclone a similar tropical storm occurred 50 years earlier
this one claiming 20 000 lives after the 1789 cyclone the residents were able to rebuild
however the 1839 cyclone was so much more severe that the city of karinga remains an incredibly
small port town even to this day the cyclone was so severe that it prompted the president
of the marine corps of inquiry at kolkata henry pennington to present a study on similar storms
to the asiatic society of bengal in 1840 in fact it was at this meeting that he coined
the word cyclone and ever since that's been the go-to word to describe such natural disasters
after the fact british officials would name karinga as hope island as a
whimsical way to try to protect the area from future natural disasters perhaps it's
worked since 1839 there hasn't been another cyclone to that scale to visit the port again
a lot of people talk about what would happen if the big one ever came to california
the truth of the matter is that it would need to be pretty big to claim the top spot of the biggest
deadliest earthquake in recorded history this happened on january 23rd 1556 when a massive
earthquake struck the shaanxi province in northern china the magnitude 8 earthquake hit shangsi and
neighboring areas killing an estimated 830 000 people the devastation was so severe
that it is believed the earthquake reduced the population of the two affected provinces
by 60 percent the earthquake was so large that it's actually been recorded in vivid details
there are many animals from the area that contained records of 26 other earthquakes
that happened in shaoxi but none of them have been described in such detail as this what's remarkable
is that the earthquake itself only lasted a few seconds but it caused fires and caused intense
flooding that lasted for days on end following the devastation experts began to look more thoroughly
into what precisely caused earthquakes china also began to invest in other homemaking techniques
previously buildings were made out of stone which was very easy to destroy in an earthquake
after the 1556 quake more buildings particularly in shaanxi were made out of wood bamboo and
other soft materials that would hold up better in a quake paving the way for safer
construction in earthquake-prone areas around the rest of the world
having occurred so recently the bola cyclone of 1970 is the most well-documented natural
disaster on this list the cyclone first formed on november 3rd 1970 after initially developing
it began traveling north growing in intensity as it moved it reached its peak on november 11th when
winds reached a speed of 115 miles per hour this is also when it made landfall off the coast of
east pakistan now known as bangladesh the surge of storm activity also impacted nearby islands
wiping out entire villages and destroying all of the crops in the region the most impacted areas of
the cyclone were tazu mudin and upasila in total it's estimated that anywhere between 500 000 and
1 million people lost their lives in the storm these kinds of cyclones are not rare in the region
another destructive cyclone occurred in october of 1960 after that event the pakistani government
contacted the u.s for assistance in building up a system to help avoid future environmental
disasters the director of the national hurricane center conducted a detailed study and submitted
a report the next year unfortunately the pakistani government did not follow through
on all of the suggestions the director had made as a result there was significant criticism of
the government's response in the aftermath of the cyclone in the election later that year the
opposition party pretty much took control of all the seats up for grabs due to dissatisfaction with
the government's response the cyclone also led to the concert for bangladesh in 1971
which was organized by former beatle george harrison it turned out to be an incredibly
successful event to raise money and awareness to the region still suffering from devastation
china has had a long and disastrous history of flooding centuries prior to that event that took
place in 1887 farmers built dikes near the river to try to contain the flow over time this actually
caused the river to flow higher because it had to deposit all of the silt onto the riverbed
it all came to a head on september 28 1887 when after days of heavy rainfall the water
from the river overcame the dikes specifically water broke through the dikes in hawaiian coup
this was a problem because there were many low-lying planes in this vicinity
this caused the flooding to spread incredibly fast throughout the northern part of china
it's estimated that it covered 50 000 square miles the flood made its way through various commercial
centers and various agricultural settlements multiple estimates report that anywhere between
900 000 and 2 million people lost their lives with millions more becoming homeless in the process
what was even worse is that illness and the lack of basic necessities ended up
claiming as many lives as what was lost as a direct result of the flood
and it still wasn't the worst disaster that even occurred in that region
from between 1928 and 1930 china experienced a terrible drought in particular the winter of
1930 was not kind to the region creating huge deposits of snow and ice around the mountains
early in 1931 the snow and ice melted and began to flow downstream it finally arrived in the yangtze
region during a time when there was heavy rainfall the effects of this massive deluge of water could
be seen as early as june of that year when people in low areas had to abandon their houses to add
insult to injury the summer of 1931 resulted in severe cyclonic activity nine cyclones occurred in
the region in july alone in an area that normally sees two cyclones every year the flooding impacted
an area covering over 110 000 square miles that's equivalent to the size of new york connecticut
and new jersey combined numerous waterways throughout the country were affected with the most
impacted regions being anhui hunan and xi's among others immediately following the flooding
the government estimated that roughly 25 million people had been directly impacted by the water
in hindsight some historians believe it could have been as many as 53 million people the
estimated death toll also ranges depending on which reports you look at most estimate that
anywhere between 420 000 and 4 million people lost their lives as a result of the flooding in 1931
and that's just how many people died directly from the flooding the water also brought with it a host
of diseases to the region in measles dysentery malaria and cholera these diseases spread so
easily due to massive overcrowding in areas where people fled to in order to escape the flooding
additionally a lack of food caused many people to resort to eating weeds and tree bark it wouldn't
be the last flood to devastate china but as of this video it remains the single most devastating
natural disaster in all of recorded human history there have been plenty of environmental disasters
to impact humanity over the centuries these have been completely out of humanity's control and
while society has advanced greatly since the 1500s we're still very much at the whims of
mother nature many places are just one tsunami or earthquake away from being upended for decades
so make sure to remain vigilant over what disasters could potentially impact your city
be sure to click the link on screen to check out our video of nuclear tests that went horribly
wrong trust me it's not what you expect with that thanks for watching and tune in next
time