Hey YouTube, Jim here!
Welcome to Top 10 Archive!
Mother Nature is powerful beyond comprehension, and when she shows herself in full force,
the results are terrifying.
With smartphone technology, we’re now seeing more videos than ever emerging in the wake
of natural disasters, so there’s plenty of footage out there to prove just how destructive
our planet can be.
Here’s my list of the top ten worst natural disasters caught on tape.
Be warned, some of the footage is pretty shocking.
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10.
Hurricane Katrina In August 2005, a deadly category five hurricane
made landfall and tore New Orleans apart with torrential rains and wind speeds of up to
175 miles or 280 kilometers per hour.
It was the fourth-most intense tropical cyclone to ever make landfall in the US, and more
than 1,800 people lost their lives during the tragedy.
As the devastating events unfolded, video clips emerged of the dire situation New Orleans
residents were facing.
80% of the city was flooded and the thousands of people that didn’t evacuate filmed their
increasingly dangerous surroundings as they found themselves with a serious lack of food,
water, and shelter.
The city’s Superdome, which was sheltering people that had not been able to evacuate,
was seriously damaged and the roof’s waterproof membrane was totally peeled away by the vicious
winds.
9.
Volcanic eruption, Mount Ontake It was a peaceful and sunny day in 2014’s
peak hiking season when the country’s first deadly volcanic eruption in 23 years took
walkers on Japan’s Mount Ontake by surprise.
The volcano is a popular tourist attraction and there were several hundred people on her
slopes that day.
There were no significant tremors to alert hikers of the impending eruption, so when
Mount Ontake blew her top there was very little time to escape the cloud of ash, rocks, and
toxic gas that followed.
Hikers close to the top of the 10,000-foot summit had no time to run, and they found
themselves trapped in a horrifying predicament.
Emergency helicopters were sent to rescue the 250 stranded hikers but 63 people still
lost their lives.
Many victims were found buried underneath ash, and others had succumbed to injuries
caused by flying rocks.
8.
Christchurch earthquake In 2011, a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck
New Zealand, killing 185 people.
The quake hit 6 miles or 10 kilometers outside of Christchurch at lunchtime, and in just
ten seconds the country’s most violent earthquake in history brought the city to its knees.
The shallowness of the earthquake combined with the fact that the city was already damaged
by a quake the previous year, led to buildings falling down all over the city.
More than half the total deaths were caused when the Canterbury Television building collapsed
and caught fire, and eight were killed when masonry fell onto a bus they were riding in.
Almost 7,000 people were treated for injuries caused by the quake, and it took a full day
to rescue all of the survivors from the rubble.
Video footage shows people on lunchtime strolls running for their lives as building debris
rains down on them from above.
7.
Typhoon Haiyan, the Philippines In late 2013, one of the most brutal and destructive
tropical cyclones ever recorded battered Southeast Asia, but it was The Philippines that suffered
the worst fate.
It was the deadliest natural disaster in the country’s history and official reports claimed
that 6,300 lives were lost but other reports put that figure well over 20,000.
Winds of up to 195 miles or 315 kilometers per hour tore the island to pieces, making
it the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded based on wind speeds.
The storm destroyed homes and injured tens of thousands of residents as it made its way
across the island.
One heavily pregnant woman was forced to swim for her life and cling to a post to survive
when storm surges tore through her village.
The giant wave swept away her mother, and the pregnant woman was forced to give birth
in a makeshift center just days after her ordeal.
6.
Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Japan When a magnitude 9 megathrust earthquake struck
off the northeastern coast of Japan in March 2011, it caused a tsunami that killed thousands
of citizens and caused billions of dollars of damages.
The six-minute tremor was so powerful that it actually shifted the Earth on its axis
by several centimeters, and it also stirred up waves measuring more than 130 feet or 40
meters.
Those waves tore inland for more than six miles or 10 kilometers, taking with them anything
that stood in their way.
Buildings, boats, cars, and people were swept up by the powerful swells, and more than 15,000
people are thought to have lost their lives on that tragic day.
After the tragedy, the Japanese government introduced a new tsunami warning system after
their old one had failed to register just how devastating the 2011 wave would be.
5.
Avalanche on Everest When Nepal was hit by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake
in April 2015, almost 9,000 people lost their lives.
The damage to the country’s infrastructure was catastrophic and the death toll would
have been much higher had so many people in rural areas not been working outside at the
time of the tremors.
Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese people became homeless and entire villages were wiped off
the map, but the suffering wasn’t limited to Nepal: climbers on Mount Everest also became
victims of the quake when it triggered a series of deadly avalanches.
Between 700 and 1,000 were on the mountain when the earthquake struck, including 359
climbers at basecamp.
One wall of snow smashed into basecamp, wiping out tents and killing 19.
Dozens of other climbers became stranded at dangerously high altitudes, and rescue efforts
were constantly slowed by bad weather conditions.
At least 22 people were killed on Everest that day, making April 25th, 2015 the deadliest
date in the mountain’s history.
4.
Portugal wildfires On the afternoon of June 17th, 2017 four wildfires
erupted in central Portugal, beginning a series of events that would kill at least 66 people.
The initial fires were caused by an intense heatwave and freak lightning strikes, and
in total, 156 fires ignited over a seven day period.
1,700 firefighters were called in to tackle the blaze, and water-bombing planes doused
flames as the heatwave continued and threatened to start more fires.
Spain, France, Italy, and Morocco also lent support to the burning country.
One particularly unthinkable situation caused several of the deaths during the wildfires.
The tragedy occurred when the fire suddenly swept across a road packed with people evacuating
their cars, trapping them with thick smoke and towering flames.
22 people burned to death in their vehicles, and a further three people lost their lives
to smoke inhalation.
3.
Haiti earthquake On January 12th, 2010 a magnitude-7 earthquake
struck the West Indian island of Hispaniola, better known as the piece of land occupied
by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Haiti suffered the brunt of the damage, with the epicenter being approximately 16 miles
or 25 kilometers west of capital city Port-au-Prince.
This was the first earthquake of such magnitude to hit Haiti since the 18th century, and the
poverty-stricken country’s infrastructure wasn’t designed to withstand such violent
tremors.
A series of 52 aftershocks, some of which measuring up to magnitudes of 5.9, hampered
rescue efforts, and the country turned to chaos as officials struggled to regain control.
At least 160,000 victims lost their lives, although some figures put the number at 316,000.
So many people died in the capital that overwhelmed morgues were forced to bury victims in mass
graves.
Over a quarter of a million residential and commercial buildings were destroyed during
the quakes, which left thousands more homeless for months on end.
2.
Hurricane Sandy In 2012, a superstorm ripped its way through
the Caribbean before causing havoc in North America.
Originating in the western Caribbean Sea, hurricane Sandy gathered strength as she traveled
up the coast of the United States and made landfall near New Jersey.
Violent winds and storm surges left New York City underwater for days, with tunnels and
subway lines completely flooded.
In Jamaica, 70% of residents lost their electricity when Sandy touched down and over $100 million
of damage was caused.
Haiti suffered severe flooding caused by Sandy’s outer bands, which killed at least 54 people,
caused food shortages, and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless.
By the time Sandy’s reign of terror was over, 233 people had been killed in eight
countries, and around $70 billion in damage was caused.
The storm became the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, spanning an incredible 900 miles
or 1,400 kilometers.
1.
Tsunami, Indian Ocean The devastating reason that there’s so much
footage of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami is that it occurred on Boxing Day while thousands
of families were still documenting their Christmas celebrations.
For that reason, it’s number one on our list of the worst natural disasters ever caught
on tape.
The 9.1 magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Indonesia caused a tsunami like
nothing the modern world had ever seen before, and it claimed almost a quarter of a million
lives and caused $10 billion of damage as it swept through multiple countries.
Waves of up to 30 meters or 100-feet high smashed into coastlines, wiping out tourists
and locals as they enjoyed a morning in the sun.
Entire communities were destroyed, and some areas never fully recovered from the tragedy
that turned their lives upside down on that fateful morning.
Said to be one of the deadliest natural disasters ever, it was the third largest recorded earthquake
and had the longest ever duration of between 8 and 10 minutes.