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.
