The most terrible disasters. The worst disasters in the world
Disasters have been known for a long time - volcanic eruptions, powerful earthquakes, and tornadoes. In the last century there have been many water disasters and terrible nuclear disasters.
The worst disasters on the water
Man has been sailing on sailboats, boats, and ships across the vast oceans and seas for hundreds of years. During this time, a huge number of disasters, shipwrecks and accidents occurred.In 1915, a British passenger liner was torpedoed by a German submarine. The ship sank in eighteen minutes, being thirteen kilometers from the coast of Ireland. One thousand one hundred and ninety-eight people died.
In April 1944, a terrible disaster occurred in the port of Bombay. It all started with the fact that during the unloading of a single-screw steamer, which was loaded with gross violations of safety regulations, a violent explosion occurred. It is known that the ship carried one and a half tons of explosives, several tons of cotton, sulfur, wood, and gold bars. After the first explosion, a second one sounded. The burning cotton scattered over a radius of almost a kilometer. Almost all the ships and warehouses burned, and fires started in the city. They were extinguished only after two weeks. As a result, about two and a half thousand people were hospitalized, and one thousand three hundred and seventy-six people died. The port was restored only after seven months.
The most famous water disaster is the sinking of the Titanic. Colliding with an iceberg during its first voyage, the ship sank. More than one and a half thousand people died.
In December 1917, the French warship Mont Blanc collided with the Norwegian ship Imo near the city of Halifax. A powerful explosion occurred, leading to the destruction of not only the port, but also part of the city. The fact is that Mont Blanc was loaded exclusively with explosives. About two thousand people died, nine thousand were injured. This is the most powerful explosion of the pre-nuclear era.
Three thousand one hundred and thirty people died on the French cruiser after a torpedo attack by a German submarine in 1916. As a result of the torpedoing of the German floating hospital "General Steuben", about three thousand six hundred and eight people died.
In December 1987, the Philippine passenger ferry Dona Paz collided with the tanker Vector. Four thousand three hundred and seventy-five people died.
In May 1945, a tragedy occurred in the Baltic Sea, which claimed the lives of about eight thousand people. The cargo ship Tilbeck and the liner Cap Arcona came under fire from British aircraft. As a result of the torpedoing of the Goya by a Soviet submarine in the spring of 1945, six thousand nine hundred people died.
“Wilhelm Gustlow” was the name of the German passenger liner sunk by a submarine under the command of Marinesko in January 1945. The exact number of victims is unknown, approximately nine thousand people.
The worst disasters in Russia
We can name several terrible disasters that occurred on Russian territory. Thus, in June 1989, one of the largest train accidents in Russia occurred near Ufa. A huge explosion occurred while two passenger trains were passing by. An unlimited cloud of fuel-air mixture exploded, which was formed due to an accident on a nearby pipeline. According to some sources, five hundred and seventy-five people died, according to others, six hundred and forty-five. Another six hundred people were wounded. 
The worst environmental disaster in the territory former USSR the death of the Aral Sea is considered. For a number of reasons: soil, social, biological, the Aral Sea has almost completely dried up in fifty years. Most of its tributaries were used for irrigation and some other agricultural purposes in the sixties. The Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world. Since the influx of fresh water was significantly reduced, the lake gradually died.
In the summer of 2012 in Krasnodar region There was a massive flood. It is considered the largest disaster on Russian territory. In two July days, five months' worth of precipitation fell. The city of Krymsk was almost completely washed away by water. Officially, 179 people were declared dead, of which 159 were residents of Krymsk. More than 34 thousand local residents were affected.
The worst nuclear disasters
Huge numbers of people are exposed to nuclear disasters. So in April 1986, one of the power units of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. Radioactive substances released into the atmosphere settled on nearby villages and towns. This accident is one of the most destructive of its kind. Hundreds of thousands of people took part in the liquidation of the accident. Several hundred people were killed or injured. A thirty-kilometer exclusion zone has been formed around the nuclear power plant. The scale of the disaster is still unclear.In Japan, in March 2011, an explosion occurred at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant during an earthquake. Because of this, a large amount of radioactive substances entered the atmosphere. At first, officials hushed up the scale of the disaster.
After the Chernobyl disaster, the most significant nuclear accident is considered to be the one that occurred in 1999 in the Japanese city of Tokaimura. An accident occurred at a uranium processing plant. Six hundred people were exposed to radiation, four people died.
The worst disaster in human history
The explosion of an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 is considered the most disastrous disaster for the biosphere in the entire existence of mankind. The platform itself went under water after the explosion. As a result, a huge volume of petroleum products ended up in the world's oceans. The spill lasted one hundred and fifty-two days. The oil film covered an area equal to seventy-five thousand square kilometers in the Gulf of Mexico. 
In terms of the number of victims, the disaster that occurred in India in the city of Bhapole in December 1984 is considered the largest. There was a chemical leak at one of the factories. Eighteen thousand people died. Until now, the causes of this disaster have not been fully elucidated.
It is impossible not to mention the worst fire that occurred in London in 1666. The fire spread across the city with lightning speed, destroying about seventy thousand houses and killing about eighty thousand people. The fire lasted for four days.
Not only disasters are terrible, but also entertainment. The website has a rating of the scariest attractions in the world.
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Nature often presents us with unpleasant surprises. And it happens that these “surprises” turn into monstrous consequences and the death of a large number of people. In this article we will look at the worst natural disasters in the world, including earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and fires.
1556 CHINA EARTHQUAKE
On January 23, 1556, an earthquake occurred in the Shaanxi province of China, which caused the death of eight hundred and thirty thousand people. According to experts, the power of this earthquake corresponds to eight points; in terms of the number of deaths, this incident is one of the three most terrible natural disasters in the world in the entire written history of mankind.
All residential buildings were destroyed and several architectural monuments were destroyed. The destruction affected the area within a radius of five hundred kilometers from the epicenter.
Such a large number of deaths from this disaster is explained by the following reasons:
- The territory of China has been quite densely populated throughout its history;
- At that time, most citizens lived in fairly simple houses that did not have high strength, much less resistance to seismic shocks. In addition, they stood on loose soil and quickly sank into the ground;
- The earthquake occurred at five in the morning, when most people were in their homes. In addition, this time made it somewhat difficult to detect signs of an earthquake in a timely manner.
LANDSCAPE IN THE PAMIR MOUNTAINS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF USOY
The landslide that occurred in 1911 near the village of Usoi is considered the most powerful in the entire twentieth century. Unfortunately, since this disaster occurred in a remote corner of Russia, this disaster became known only two months later.
The landslide area was only surveyed in 1913, and because of this, some features of this disaster remained unknown. In addition, the exact date of this incident still remains unknown.
However, it is thoroughly known that the cause of the landslide was an earthquake.
The Pamir landslide, consisting of rocks and clay, completely covered the village of Usoy, which killed all its inhabitants, namely 54 people. In addition, rocks that descended from the mountains completely filled up the valley and blocked the Mugrab River, resulting in the formation of a new large lake.
Collateral damage caused by the landslide was the gradual rise of water in the newly formed lake, which caused the flooding of the nearby village of Sarez. After some time, the water was able to break through a new channel in the landslide mass, which equalized the outflow and inflow, which made it possible to create a constant water level.
Based on the results of this incident, the Pamir landslide is undoubtedly one of the largest natural disasters in the world.
FLOODS IN CHINA IN 1931
In 1931, a series of floods occurred in south-central China, which are among the world's most famous natural disasters. These incidents caused the deaths of between 145 thousand and four million people.
Between 1928 and 1930 there was a very severe drought in China, and the subsequent winter of 1930-31 was very snowy. Melting snow and large amounts of spring rain caused rivers to overflow. Showers continued into the summer and reached their peak intensity in August.
Because of this, the largest rivers in China - the Yangtze, Yellow River, and Huaihe - overflowed their banks. The water flooded and almost completely destroyed the city of Nanjing, which at that time was the capital of China.
On August 19, the water level exceeded the norm by sixteen meters, and on the evening of August 25, the Grand Canal was flooded, the dams were washed away, which caused the death of two hundred thousand people in one night.
The inability to quickly bury the dead caused an epidemic of typhus and cholera, and due to the lack of food, cases of cannibalism and infanticide began.
FLOOD IN ST. PETERSBURG 1824
The most destructive flood in the history of St. Petersburg occurred on November 7, 1824. And although floods are not an unusual phenomenon for the city on the Neva, this event undoubtedly ranks among the worst natural disasters in Russia.
On November 7, 1824, heavy rain poured in St. Petersburg, which was complemented by a cold and damp wind. In the evening, the bad weather began to intensify, and a rapid rise of water began in the canals, which quickly attracted the attention of citizens, as the water rose by more than four meters. The total damage from this disaster at that time was estimated at 15-20 million rubles.
- 462 houses were destroyed and 3,681 damaged;
- More than 3,600 head of livestock died;
- Between 200 and 600 people drowned and many went missing.
1755 LISBON EARTHQUAKE
One of the most terrible and grandiose disasters in the world, without a doubt, is the Great Lisbon Earthquake, which occurred on November 1, 1755 at 9:20 am. And this is not surprising because because of this incident, the capital of Portugal, Lisbon, was completely destroyed.
In just six minutes, about eighty thousand people died. It is also impossible not to say that seismic tremors caused tsunamis and fires. According to experts, the power of this earthquake corresponds to 8.7 points. Its epicenter was in the Atlantic Ocean, 200 kilometers from Cape San Vincente.
Lisbon was not the only city to suffer due to the disaster. The tremors were felt in all southern regions of the country, and reached Finland and North Africa. The tsunamis caused by the earthquake hit the islands of Barbados and Martinique and the coast of North Africa.
It should be noted that this earthquake was a powerful impetus for the emergence of modern seismology.
HURRICANE SAN CALISTCO 1780
Hurricane San Calistico is one of the deadliest weather disasters on record in the North Atlantic basin. The hurricane raged from October 10 to October 16, 1780. More than twenty-seven and a half thousand people became its victims. Unfortunately, exact data on its strength and trajectory are unknown, since the database began to be maintained in 1851.
It originated near the Cape Verde Islands, and began to grow and intensify as it moved west. The hurricane first hit Barbados, at which point the wind speed exceeded 320 kilometers per hour. After this, the disaster struck Martinique, Saint Eustatius and Saint Lucia. With each new city through which the hurricane passed, the number of victims increased by thousands. In addition to populated areas, the disaster damaged the fleets of Great Britain and France.
The total death toll from Hurricane San Calistico is the highest on record for such a weather event, making it one of the most famous natural disasters in the world.
HURRICANE MITCH
Hurricane Mitch is considered the second most powerful weather event on record in the Atlantic Basin. It formed on October 22, 1998, in the western Caribbean Sea.
Nicaragua and Honduras suffered the most from the violence of the elements. The hurricane caused the death of eleven thousand people, while approximately the same number are considered missing. In addition, this disaster made two million seven hundred thousand people homeless.
In addition to the direct damage caused by the hurricane, up to eighty percent of Honduras' infrastructure was destroyed. Roads and bridges were destroyed, airports were destroyed, which significantly hampered the supply of food, water and medicine, which led to severe famine and the spread of diseases such as cholera, dengue and malaria. The total property damage from the hurricane in Honduras exceeds one billion dollars.
Nicaragua became the second state in terms of the amount of damage caused. Heavy rains that accompanied Hurricane Mitch caused Lake Casita to overflow and flood nearby villages with mud. Just like in Honduras, the violence of the elements caused famine and the emergence of various diseases.
Countries such as El Salvador and Guatemala were less affected, with several hundred people killed and most of their sugar cane, coffee and grain crops destroyed.
One of the main reasons for such high destruction is that this hurricane was not detected immediately, even despite the technical resources available.
HURRICANE KATRINA
This hurricane is rightfully considered the most powerful in US history. According to scientists, it is the sixth most powerful among the known hurricanes of the Atlantic basin, and belongs to the fifth category on the Saffir-Simpson scale, and is undoubtedly one of the most famous natural disasters in the world.
Hurricane Katrina began forming on August 23, 2005, near the Bahamas. It should be noted that as it moved towards the coast, the hurricane weakened somewhat, and its wind speed reached 280 km/h.
The heaviest damage was caused to cities such as New Orleans and Louisiana, where approximately 80% of the city was under water. One thousand eight hundred thirty-six people died, and the total economic loss was $125 billion, according to a 2007 estimate.
It should be noted that the majority of those affected by this disaster were city residents who lived below the poverty line and did not have money to pay for travel and hotels. At the same time public services, although they declared the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama as disaster areas, they were in no hurry to help evacuate those who could not do it themselves.
In New Orleans, by the time Hurricane Katrina approached, there were one hundred and fifty thousand people left who lived in poor areas. The city authorities offered them the Superdome stadium as a refuge, in which thirty thousand people could take refuge.
ERUPTION OF KRAKATAU VOLCANO
Krakatoa was an active Indonesian volcano located in the Malay Archipelago between Java and Sumatra. Until 1883 it was a large island.
In May 1883, a powerful eruption began, which is one of the most terrible natural disasters. Explosions and ejections of rock continued until the end of August, and led to the devastation of the “underground chamber” under the volcano. The last powerful explosion occurred on August 27, with the ash column reaching a height of 30 km. Its force was equivalent to two hundred megatons of TNT, which is ten thousand times more powerful than the bomb that hit Hiroshima. According to various sources, the shock wave circled the earth from seven to eleven times.
The island was almost completely destroyed, and the tsunamis that rose were up to thirty meters high, and their impact led to the destruction of 295 cities and villages, and the death of thirty-six thousand people.
In addition, volcanic ash rose up to eighty kilometers into the atmosphere and remained there for several years. Fortunately, the most noticeable consequences of such a release for most people was the intense coloring of the dawns.
HURRICANE IRMA, 2017
The ranking of the largest natural disasters would not be complete without the powerful tropical hurricane Irma. It hit the Antilles and Virgin Islands, bringing with it destruction to Cuba, Florida, and the Bahamas. Economic damage from Hurricane Irma is estimated at $65 billion, and the death toll is 134 people.
Hurricane Irma destroyed buildings and infrastructure, thousands of people were left homeless, and transport links were disrupted. In the state of Florida (USA) alone, almost a quarter of the population, over 6 million people, was evacuated.
Hurricane Irma was not the only devastating natural disaster in 2017: southeast Texas (USA) and the Atlantic coast South America Hurricanes Harvey and Maria hit. Economic damage from Hurricane Harvey is estimated at $70 billion, and the death toll is 83 people.
In general, 2017 is considered the most destructive year in terms of the scale of natural disasters; after the Atlantic hurricanes, large forest fires occurred in California (USA), as well as a series of hurricanes in European countries.
Environmental disasters have their own specifics - during them not a single person may die, but at the same time very significant damage to the environment will be caused. Nowadays, the culprit of environmental disasters is mainly man. The growth of industrial and agricultural production not only brings material benefits, but is also slowly killing our environment. Therefore, the biggest environmental disasters in the world are permanently imprinted in people's memories.
1. Oil leakage from the Prestige tanker
The Bahamian-flagged single-hull tanker Prestige was built by the Japanese shipyard Hitachi to transport crude oil and launched in 1976. In November 2002, while passing through the Bay of Biscay, the tanker encountered a strong storm off the coast of Galicia, as a result of which it received a 35 m long crack, from which about a thousand tons of fuel oil began to leak per day.
Spanish coast services did not allow the dirty ship to enter the nearest port, so they tried to tow it to Portugal, but a similar refusal was received there. In the end, the restless tanker was towed to the Atlantic. On November 19, it sank completely, splitting into two parts, which sank to the bottom to a depth of about 3,700 m. Since it was impossible to repair the damage and pump out the oil products, over 70,000 cubic meters of oil ended up in the ocean. A spot more than a thousand kilometers long formed on the surface along the coastline, causing enormous damage to the local fauna and flora.
For Europe, this incident became the most catastrophic oil spill in history. The damage from it was estimated at 4 billion euros, and 300,000 volunteers worked to eliminate its consequences.
2. Exxon Valdez tanker wreck
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On March 23, 1989, the Exxon Valdez tanker, fully loaded with oil, sailed from a terminal in the Alaskan port of Valdez, bound for the Californian port of Long Beach. Having taken the ship out of Valdez, the pilot handed over control of the tanker to Captain Joseph Jeffrey, who by that time was already “tipsy.” There were icebergs in the sea, so the captain was forced to deviate from the course, notifying the coast guard. Having received permission from the latter, he changed course, and at 23 o'clock he left the wheelhouse, leaving control of the ship to the third mate and the sailor, who had already served their watch and needed a 6-hour rest. In fact, the tanker was controlled by an autopilot, guided by a navigation system.
Before leaving, the captain instructed the mate that two minutes after passing abeam the island it was necessary to change course. The assistant conveyed this order to the sailor, but either he himself was late, or his execution was late, but at half past one on the night of March 24, the tanker crashed into Blythe Reef. As a result of the disaster, 40,000 cubic meters of oil spilled into the ocean, and environmentalists believe that much more. 2,400 km of coastline were polluted, making the accident one of the world's most significant environmental disasters.
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3. Chernobyl disaster
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Everyone has probably heard about the largest nuclear power plant accident in the history of mankind, which occurred in Chernobyl. Its consequences are visible today and will continue to be felt for many years to come. On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred at the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, completely destroying the reactor, and environment tons of radioactive materials were released. At the time of the tragedy itself, 31 people died, but this is only the tip of the iceberg - it is simply impossible to calculate the number of victims and injured from this accident.
Officially, about 200 people who were directly involved in its liquidation are considered to have died from the accident; their lives were claimed by radiation sickness. Nature has suffered enormous damage Eastern Europe. Tens of tons of radioactive uranium, plutonium, strontium and cesium were dispersed into the atmosphere and began to slowly settle to the ground, carried by the wind. The authorities’ desire not to widely publicize what happened so that panic would not begin among the population contributed to the tragedy of the unfolding events around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Therefore, many thousands of residents of cities and villages who were not included in the alienated 30-kilometer zone carelessly remained in their places.
In subsequent years, there was a surge in cancer among them, mothers gave birth to thousands of deformities, and this is still observed. In total, due to the spread of radioactive contamination in the area, the authorities had to evacuate over 115,000 people living within a 30-kilometer zone around the nuclear power plant. More than 600,000 people took part in the elimination of this accident and its lingering consequences, and enormous amounts of money were spent. The territory directly adjacent to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is still a restricted area because it is unsuitable for habitation.
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4. Accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant
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The disaster occurred on March 11, 2011. It all started with a strong earthquake and a powerful tsunami, which disabled the backup diesel generators and power supply system of the nuclear power plant. This led to dysfunction of the reactor cooling system and melting of the core in three power units of the station. During the accident, hydrogen was released, which exploded, destroying the outer shell of the reactor, but the reactor itself survived.
Due to the leak of radioactive substances, the level of radiation quickly began to increase, because the depressurization of the shells of the fuel elements caused the leak of radioactive cesium. On March 23, 30 kilometers from the station in the ocean, water samples were taken, which showed an excess of the norms for iodine-131 and cesium-137, but the radioactivity of the water was increasing and by March 31 it exceeded normal level almost 4400 times, because even after the accident, radiation-contaminated water continued to seep into the ocean. It is clear that after some time, animals with strange genetic and physiological changes began to be found in local waters.
The spread of radiation was facilitated by the fish themselves and other marine animals. Thousands of local residents had to be resettled from the radiation-contaminated area. A year later, on the coast near the nuclear power plant, radiation exceeded the norm by 100 times, so decontamination work will continue here for a long time.
5. Bhopal disaster
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The disaster in Bhopal, India was truly terrible, not only because it caused enormous damage to the state’s nature, but also because it claimed the lives of 18,000 residents. A subsidiary of the Union Carbide Corporation was building a chemical plant in Bhopal, which, according to the original design, was supposed to produce pesticides used in agriculture.
But in order for the plant to become competitive, it was decided to change the production technology towards something more dangerous and complex, which would not require more expensive imported raw materials. But a series of crop failures led to a decrease in demand for the plant's products, so its owners decided to sell the plant in the summer of 1984. Funding for the operating enterprise was curtailed, the equipment gradually wore out and no longer met safety standards. In the end, liquid methyl isocyanate overheated in one of the reactors, causing a sharp release of its vapors, which ruptured the emergency valve. In a matter of seconds, 42 tons of toxic vapors entered the atmosphere, which formed a deadly cloud with a diameter of 4 kilometers over the plant and the surrounding area.
The affected area included residential areas and a railway station. The authorities did not manage to inform the population about the danger in time, and there was a critical shortage of medical personnel, so on the very first day, 5,000 people died after inhaling poisonous gas. But for a number of years after this, poisoned people continued to die, and the total number of victims of that accident is estimated at 30,000 people.
6. Disaster at the Sandoz chemical plant
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One of the worst environmental disasters, which caused incredible damage to nature, occurred on November 1, 1986 in prosperous Switzerland. Chemical and pharmaceutical giant Sandoz's plant, built on the banks of the Rhine near Basel, produced a variety of chemicals used in agriculture. When a strong fire broke out at the plant, about 30 tons of pesticides and mercury compounds entered the Rhine. The water in the Rhine has turned an ominous red color.
The authorities prohibited residents living on its banks from leaving their homes. Downstream, in some German cities the centralized water supply had to be cut off, and residents drinking water were brought in tanks. Almost all the fish and other living creatures died in the river, some species were irretrievably lost. Later, a program was adopted until 2020, the goal of which was to make the waters of the Rhine suitable for swimming.
7. Disappearance of the Aral Sea
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Back in the middle of the last century, the Aral was the fourth largest lake in the world. But the active withdrawal of water from the Syr Darya and Amu Darya for irrigating cotton and other crops led to the fact that the Aral Sea began to quickly become shallow and was divided into 2 parts, one of which has already completely dried up, and the second will follow its example in the coming years.
Scientists estimate that from 1960 to 2007, the Aral Sea lost 1,000 cubic kilometers of water, which led to its reduction by more than 10 times. Previously, 178 species of vertebrates lived in the Aral Sea, but now there are only 38.
For decades, waste has been dumped into the Aral Sea and settled at the bottom. agriculture. Now they have turned into poisonous sand, which the wind carries fifty kilometers around, polluting the surrounding area and destroying vegetation. Vozrozhdeniya Island has long been turned into part of the mainland, but once upon a time there was a testing ground for bacteriological weapons on it. There are graves with such deadly dangerous diseases, like typhus, plague, smallpox, anthrax. Some pathogens are still alive, so they can spread into inhabited areas thanks to rodents.
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8. Flixborough chemical plant accident
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In the British city of Flixborough there was a Nipro plant, which produced ammonium nitrate, and on its territory 4000 tons of caprolactam, 3000 tons of cyclohexanone, 2500 tons of phenol, 2000 tons of cyclohexane and many other chemicals were stored. But various technological containers and spherical tanks were insufficiently filled, which increased the risk of explosion. Moreover, under high pressure and high temperature the factory reactors contained various flammable materials.
The administration sought to increase the plant's productivity, but this reduced the effectiveness of fire extinguishing agents. The company's engineers were often forced to turn a blind eye to deviations from technological regulations and neglect safety standards - a familiar picture. Finally, on June 1, 1974, the plant was shaken by a powerful explosion. Instantly, the production premises were engulfed in flames, and the shock wave from the explosion swept through the surrounding populated areas, shattering windows, tearing roofs off houses and injuring people. 55 people died then. The power of the explosion was estimated at 45 tons of TNT. But worst of all, the explosion was accompanied by the emergence of a large cloud of toxic fumes, which is why the authorities had to urgently evacuate residents of some neighboring settlements.
Damage from this man-made disaster estimated at £36 million - it was the most expensive emergency incident for British industry.
9. Fire on the Piper Alpha oil rig
In July 1988 at Piper platform Alpha, used to extract oil and gas, suffered a major disaster. Its consequences were aggravated by the indecisive and ill-considered actions of the personnel, due to which, out of 226 people working on the platform, 167 died. For some time after the accident, oil products continued to flow through the pipes, so the fire did not die out, but flared up even more. This disaster resulted not only in human casualties, but also in great environmental damage.
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10. Explosion of an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico
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On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deep Water Horizon oil production platform, owned by British Petroleum, located in the Gulf of Mexico, causing a huge amount of oil to be released from an uncontrolled well into the sea for a long time. The platform itself sank into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Experts were only able to roughly estimate the volume of spilled oil, but one thing is clear - this disaster became one of the most terrible for the biosphere not only of the Gulf Coast, but also of the Atlantic Ocean. Oil was poured into the water for 152 days, 75,000 square meters. km of water in the bay were covered with a thick oil film. All states whose coasts overlook the Gulf of Mexico (Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi) suffered from pollution, but Alabama suffered the most.
About 400 species of rare animals were threatened with extinction, and thousands died on oil-filled shores. seabirds and amphibians. The Office of Specially Protected Resources reported that there had been an outbreak of mortality among cetaceans in the gulf following the oil spill.
We like to think that tragedies teach us at least something, like helping each other in difficult situations and working together to solve problems.
But sometimes, even when the disaster is over, the tragedy still continues. People are falling into chaos and making the worst moments in humanity's life even worse. And as a result, the details of the darkest events become so gruesome that they tend to be omitted from history books.
1. Events in Tiananmen Square - China billed the families of the victims for the spent bullets
In 1989, after the death of the controversial government and politician Hu Yaobang, Chinese students took to Tiananmen Square to try to bring about real change in China. They put forward a list of demands and went on a hunger strike in hopes of ending corruption and taking the first steps towards democracy.
However, their efforts were in vain as the army intervened in the situation. By order of the government, soldiers and tanks moved to Tiananmen Square, which is located in the very center of Beijing. At least 300 students were killed in this unequal battle. According to some estimates, the death toll reached 2,700 people.
Usually this is where the story ends, but there is one small detail that makes it even worse. According to some sources, after the murder, the Chinese government billed the families of the victims for the bullets spent. Parents of protesting students had to pay 27 cents (in modern money) for each bullet fired at their child.
The Chinese government denied the accusations against itself. However, there is every reason to believe that the above reports were true.
2. The My Lai Massacre - President Nixon pardoned the man responsible for the crime.
The most horrific incident that occurred during the Vietnam War is considered to be the My Lai massacre. In 1968, American soldiers brutally massacred 350 South Vietnamese civilians. They raped women, mutilated children - and did not suffer any punishment for it.
Of all those involved in the murder, only one soldier was charged: William Colley. The court found Colley guilty of killing 22 civilians and sentenced him to life imprisonment. However, he never went to prison. He was put under house arrest, which, however, did not last long. Colley remained under house arrest for only three years before President Richard Nixon pardoned him.
However, this story is not so simple. The man who informed the American authorities about the brutal murder and testified against the people who committed it was named Hugh Thompson. He risked his own life trying to save as many Vietnamese as possible. Thompson received death threats as a reward for his bravery and heroism. Every morning, unknown people left mutilated animals on the porch of his house. For the rest of his life, Thompson was forced to struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder.
3. Pompeii – It became so hot in the neighboring city that people’s heads could not stand it and literally exploded
The destruction of Pompeii is one of the most notorious natural disasters in human history. The entire city was plunged into a sea of volcanic ash, which claimed the lives of thousands of people.
However, compared to Herculaneum, Pompeii, so to speak, got off easy. A man who witnessed the volcanic eruption that occurred in 79 AD described this terrible disaster: “A huge black cloud descended on land and sea, accompanied by bright flashes of flame.”
This huge black cloud covered the whole of Herculaneum. Its streets became incredibly hot - the air temperature reached more than 500 degrees Celsius. In such unbearable conditions, people’s skin instantly burned, their bones turned black, and their heads could not stand it and literally exploded.
4. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 – Radioactive fallout led to an increase in cancer rates and car accidents
On September 11, 2001, when planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York, approximately 3,000 innocent people died. It was the worst terrorist attack in US history. However, over the next few years, the number of its victims increased significantly.
After the infamous events of September 11, 2001, people became afraid to fly, causing airline ticket sales to decline by 20 percent. Instead, everyone began to actively use cars, despite the fact that land transport is considered more dangerous than air. In the twelve months following the attack, nearly 1,600 Americans died in car crashes because they were afraid to fly.
But the worst impact of the events of September 11, 2001 is the increase in cancer rates. The Twin Towers were built from 400 tons of asbestos, which after the explosion turned to dust and spread throughout the city. According to some data, more than 400 thousand people were affected by the asbestos cloud. As a result, cancer rates in New York City have increased significantly since the tragedy. In addition, over 70 percent of the people who helped cope with the consequences of the explosion now suffer from lung problems.
5. Great Famine in Ireland - Queen Victoria forbade the Sultan to help her people
When famine struck Ireland, Majid Abdul Khan, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, volunteered to help the country. In 1847, he loaded the ships with food and offered Ireland financial assistance£10,000 to help fight the crisis.
Oddly enough, British diplomats rejected his offer. They explained this by saying that, according to royal protocol, the amount of foreign aid should not exceed the amount that Queen Victoria is willing to sacrifice to save her people. At their request, the Sultan reduced his monetary donation to 1000 pounds sterling.
Be that as it may, the Irish were still delighted with his “gesture of great generosity.” As a token of gratitude, they wrote to him: “For the first time in history, a Muslim ruler representing a large Islamic population shows warm sympathy for a Christian people.”
6. Black Death – The plague led to the genocide of the Jews
The Black Death in the mid-14th century killed between 75 and 200 million people, destroying about a third of Europe's population. It was a terrible tragedy for which, oddly enough, the Jews were blamed.
The fact is that Europeans considered the plague to be part of a Jewish conspiracy. They claimed that the Jews were poisoning the water in wells throughout the country in order to make the Christian people suffer. At first it was just a theory, which later received “confirmation”. The Inquisition began to hunt Jews; they were tortured until they agreed that they were responsible for the plague. After this, the people rebelled. They took children from Jewish families. They tied Jews to poles and burned them alive. During one such incident, more than 2,000 people were killed.
The Black Death, of course, was not part of a Jewish conspiracy, but people believed otherwise. Their revenge spared no one. The city of Strasbourg even passed a law that banned Jews from entering the city for 100 years.
7. Hurricane Katrina – Refusal to help refugees
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, countless people were left homeless. In search of safer places, they were forced to flee to neighboring cities. The New Orleans police helped them, showing them the way to the bridge that led to the city of Gretna.
However, on the bridge these people encountered an obstacle in the form of four police cars that blocked the road. Police officers stood next to them, holding shotguns. They chased away the refugees, shouting after them: “We don’t need another Superdome here!” According to some reports, they even took food and water from people before driving them away.
Arthur Lawson, Gretna police chief, confirmed the incident. “They don’t belong here,” he commented on his refusal to help refugees from New Orleans.
8. Wounded Knee Massacre - Twenty soldiers were awarded Medals of Honor
In 1890, American troops attacked a Lakota Indian camp. The attack killed approximately 200 innocent men, women and children. The people who did this (this event went down in history as the Massacre at Wounded Knee) were real killers. However, twenty of them were awarded the Medal of Honor. General Miles called it "an insult to the memory of the dead," but his protest came to nothing.
During Sergeant Toy's presentation it was stated that he was receiving the medal "for gallantry in fighting hostile Indians." In fact, he was rewarded for shooting in the back the fleeing Native Americans who were unarmed. Another soldier, Lieutenant Garlington, received a medal for preventing the victims from escaping. He forced them to hide in a ravine, where they were shot by Lieutenant Gresham.
Sergeant Loyd, one of those soldiers who was awarded the Medal of Honor for the massacre of unarmed Indians, committed suicide two years later - a few days before the anniversary of the massacre at Wounded Knee. It is not known what prompted him to take his own life. Perhaps it was conscience.
9. Great Fire of London – Townspeople Hanged a Mentally Retarded Man
Everyone who knew Robert Hubert considered him “not a very healthy man.” In all likelihood, he was mentally retarded or mentally ill. He couldn't utter a word English, and his limbs were paralyzed. But despite all this, he was blamed for the Great Fire of London in 1666 and hanged.
Hubert was out of town when the fire happened. He appeared two days later. The man wandered the streets, constantly repeating the word “Yes!” In 1666, to prove a person's guilt, it was not necessary to undertake special effort. The crowd grabbed Hubert and dragged him to the police station.
There he answered everything that was asked of him with the word “Yes!” He even “confessed” that a Frenchman had paid him a shilling to set London on fire. Hubert agreed with every version, but he was hanged anyway.
Fifteen years later, the captain of the ship showed up and helped Hubert get to London. He told the townspeople that when the Great Fire happened, the poor fellow was not in the city. But by that time it was already too late.
10. “Titanic” – Bills issued to the families of the victims
The British shipping company White Star Line was very frugal. According to the contract, all employees who were on board the ship were fired the very second the Titanic began to sink. The company did not want to pay crew members money for not performing their immediate duties while the ship was sinking.
After the Titanic sank, the families of the victims were informed that they would have to pay the cost of freight if they wanted to recover the bodies of their loved ones. Most of them could not afford this, which is why today many of those who died in the tragedy have memorials instead of graves.
For musicians, things were even worse. The members of the orchestra, who desperately continued to play even as the ship sank, were registered as independent contractors. This meant that the White Star Line legally had nothing to do with them. The families of other crew members received compensation for the loss of their breadwinners, but the relatives of the dead musicians were not paid a penny. But they were billed for “damaged uniforms.”
War claims tens of thousands of human lives, but even the bloodiest one cannot compare with the elements: the planet does not spare us - and does not even pay attention to the number of victims suffered from cyclones, floods and other terrible misfortunes. What's worse - a tornado or a fire? What are the chances of surviving a volcanic eruption? What about during an avalanche? Unfortunately, the answer in both cases is minimal. We have collected the 10 most terrible natural disasters in the entire history of mankind: apparently, nature is beginning, gradually, to punish us for the careless destruction of the planet.
Eruption of Mont Pele volcano
1902 On May 8, 1902, the Mont Pele volcano, which had been dormant peacefully for decades, suddenly exploded. This catastrophe simply cannot be called an eruption: lava flows and pieces of rock literally destroyed the main port of Martinique, Saint-Pierre. In just a few minutes, as many as 36,000 people died.
Flood in China
1931 The beginning of 1931 became a terrible test for the entire people of China. A series of terrible floods that modern historians Called the largest natural disaster in human history, it claimed almost 4 million lives.
Fire in Curonian-2
1936 The summer of 1936 turned out to be very hot. The fire that started near the village was fanned by the wind. The fire moved towards the people. At night, a train approached the village, and work began to save the logging site. At the very end, when the danger was very high, the train moved away - the villagers were sitting on logs. When the train approached the canal, the wooden bridge was already on fire. A train loaded with logs took over from him. People were burning alive. About 1,200 people died in one night.
Avalanche of Huascaran
1970 An earthquake off the coast of Peru destabilizes the northern slope of the majestic double-humped Mount Huascaran. An avalanche of ice and rock rushed down at a speed of 180 miles per hour. The town of Jungau, located on the spur of Huascaran, has already encountered 80 million cubic meters of mud, ice and snow. Of the 25,000 residents of the village, none survived.
Cyclone Bhola
1970 This tropical cyclone is recognized as one of the most destructive natural disasters modern world. The storm surge that hit the islands of the Ganges Delta killed half a million people. Once again, think about this number: 500,000 people died in just one day.
Storm in Iran
1972 A terrible snow storm lasted a whole week: rural areas of Iran were completely covered with a three-meter layer of snow. Some villages were literally buried under avalanches. Subsequently, authorities counted as many as 4,000 people dead.
Tanshan earthquake
1976 This natural disaster occurred in the Chinese city of Tangshan. At about four o'clock in the morning, at a depth of 22 kilometers, a powerful earthquake occurred. The city was destroyed to the ground, none of the 655,000 people survived.
Tornado in Daulatpur
1989 Observers noticed a deadly tornado, the radius of which exceeded 1.5 kilometers, on the morning of April 26. A little later, this giant fell on Bangladesh. The tornado was powerful enough to easily lift entire houses into the air. People were literally torn apart: in just one day, about one and a half thousand people died, another 12 thousand ended up in the hospital.
European heat
2003 The summer heat wave of 2003 killed 70,000 people. According to the authorities, the local health care system was simply not designed for such incredible loads. It is noteworthy that weather forecasters claim a repetition of such a heat attack approximately every thirteen years.