Sunday, Dec. 19, 2010
BY SETH BORENSTEIN AND JULIE REED BELL
This was the year the Earth struck back.
Quakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter-million people in 2010 -- the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed by natural disasters this year than by terrorist attacks in the past 40 years combined.
"It just seemed like it was back-to-back and it came in waves," said Craig Fugate, who heads the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010.
"The term '100-year event' really lost its meaning this year."
And we have ourselves to blame most of the time, scientists and disaster experts say. Poor construction, development practices and urban crowding made earthquakes more deadly than they needed to be, for example.
The January earthquake that killed more than 220,000 people in Haiti is a perfect example. In February, an earthquake that was more than 500 times stronger hit an area of Chile that was less populated, better constructed and not as poor. Chile's quake caused fewer than 1,000 deaths.
Climate scientists say Earth's climate is changing thanks to human activity, bringing extreme weather. One weather system caused oppressive heat in Russia and flooding in Pakistan.
Preliminary data show that 18 countries broke their records for the hottest day ever.
Here's a quick tour of an anything-but-normal 2010:
How deadly
While the Haitian earthquake, Russian heat wave and Pakistani flooding were the biggest killers, deadly quakes also struck Chile, Turkey, China and Indonesia in one of the most active seismic years in decades. This year is tied for the most big quakes since 1970.
Flooding alone this year killed more than 6,300 people in 59 nations through September, according to the World Health Organization. In the United States, 30 people died in the Nashville region. Inundated countries include China, Italy, India, Colombia and Chad. Super Typhoon Megi, with winds of more than 200 mph, devastated the Philippines and parts of China.
Through Nov. 30, nearly 260,000 people died in natural disasters in 2010, compared with 15,000 in 2009, according to Swiss Re, a reinsurance company. It was the deadliest year for natural disasters since 1983, which was marked by Ethiopian drought and famine, according to WHO.
How extreme
After strong early blizzards -- nicknamed Snowmageddon -- paralyzed the U.S. mid-Atlantic and record snowfalls hit Russia and China, the temperature turned to broil.
The year may go down as the hottest on record worldwide, or at the very least in the top three, according to the World Meteorological Organization. In May, 129 set a record for Pakistan and may have been the highest temperature recorded in an inhabited area.
In the U.S. Southeast the year began with freezes in Florida, then became the hottest summer on record for the region. As the year ended, unusually cold weather was back in force.
How costly
Disasters caused $222 billion in economic losses in 2010, according to Swiss Re. That's more than usual, but not a record; that's because this year's disasters often struck poor areas without heavy insurance.
How weird
A volcano in Iceland paralyzed air traffic for days in Europe, disrupting travel for more than 7 million people. Other volcanoes in the Congo, Guatemala, Ecuador, the Philippines and Indonesia sent people scurrying for safety. New York City had a tornado.
A nearly 2-pound hailstone that was 8 inches in diameter fell in South Dakota in July to set a U.S. record. And there was not much snow to start the Winter Olympics in a relatively balmy Vancouver, British Columbia, while the U.S. East Coast was snowbound.
In a 24-hour period in October, Indonesia got the trifecta of terra terror: a deadly magnitude-7.7 earthquake, a tsunami that killed more than 500 people and a volcanic eruption that caused more than 390,000 people to flee. That's after flooding, landslides and more quakes killed hundreds earlier in the year.
Man-made disasters
It was also a year of man-made technological catastrophes, with BP's blown-out oil well and the trapped miners in Chile among them.