The United States is a bountiful land but it can be a harsh one too. What nature gives with one hand, it takes with the other, sending powerful hurricanes and twisters, earthquakes and floods to test those who call this great land home. Americans have faced these trials and tribulations with determination and bravery, generosity and compassion, but these are the natural disasters that tested the nation’s resilient spirit the most.
The most lethal known volcanic eruption in the United States took place in November 1790 when a party of warriors and their families led by chief Keoua were decimated by an explosive eruption on Kilauea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. Locals called it Keonehelelei – the falling sand – and estimates of the number of fatalities range from 80 to 5,405. In 1919, Roy H Finch, a geologist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, discovered human footprints fossilised in the Kaʻu Desert ash (pictured), leading to speculation that they belonged to survivors of the 1790 eruption, as so few people had visited the area since the event.
On 7 May 1840, a killer tornado tore through Natchez, a busy port town on the Mississippi River. Natchez was razed to the ground and all but four of the 120 flat boats at the landing that day were lost. The steamboat Hinds was overturned and sank, its hulk finally washing up in Baton Rouge. As many as 317 people were killed – 269 on the river – with 109 injured. The tornado also tore through plantations in the area, leading many to believe the death toll was much higher as enslaved people weren’t counted among those killed.
Famously started when Mrs O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern on 8 October 1871, the Great Chicago Fire raged through this great metropolis for three days, killing 300 people and destroying roughly 3.3 square miles (8.5sq km) of the city. Over 16,000 structures were destroyed and more than 100,000 people left homeless when the city’s notorious slums became kindling. A steady wind from the southwest carried the flames and blazing debris from block to block, leaving helpless firefighters in its wake. Only rainfall and the lake stopped the unrelenting wave of destruction from taking more lives.
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The Peshtigo Fire started the same night as the Great Chicago Fire and is regarded as the most devastating forest fire in US history. It swept through 1.5 million acres of northeast Wisconsin, destroyed countless communities and claimed more than 1,200 lives. Accounts from survivors suggest that it was started by embers from fires lit by rail workers to clear land. The unusually dry conditions saw it quickly turn into an inferno. Survivors described it as a “tornado of flames” and like “the end of the world”. Today the Peshtigo Fire Museum has a small collection of fire artefacts, first-person accounts and a graveyard dedicated to victims of the tragedy.
When the South Fork Dam in Pennsylvania collapsed on 31 May 1889, a devastating wall of water swept down the Conemaugh Valley destroying everything in its path. At least 20 million tonnes of water raced 14 miles (22.5km) downstream at 40 miles per hour (64km/h), destroying 1,600 homes, killing 2,209 people and tossing locomotives into the air like they were toys. Four square miles (10sq km) of downtown Johnstown were completely destroyed and bodies were swept as far away as Cincinnati. Also known as The Great Flood, it was the first major peacetime disaster relief effort for the Red Cross, which had been formed only eight years before.
One of the deadliest natural disasters in US history took place on 8 September 1900 when a Category 4 hurricane tore apart the island city of Galveston on Texas’s Gulf Coast. The estimated death toll of 6,000-12,000 people was the result of extreme winds, flying debris and storm swells that submerged the city. Residents were caught unawares when US meteorologists underestimated how much the storm had intensified in the Gulf of Mexico. Galveston rebuilt, raising the elevation of many new buildings by more than 10 feet (3m), but lost its status as Texas’s premier port to Houston.
On the morning of 18 April 1906, the residents of San Francisco were shaken from their beds when a massive earthquake measuring 8.25 on the Richter scale hit their city. It lasted less than a minute but the impact was devastating. The earthquake ignited fires around the city that burned for three days and destroyed nearly 500 city blocks. Despite a quick response from San Francisco's large military population, an estimated 3,000 people died and half of the city's 400,000 residents were left homeless. It is considered one of the worst natural disasters in US history, with survivors sleeping in tents in city parks for weeks.
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On 16 March 1907, torrential rains and meltwater caused the three rivers of Pittsburgh to burst their banks, flooding the centre of the city. Homes and businesses were destroyed and many lost their jobs due to the closure of local mills and industrial plants, while between six and 12 people are thought to have lost their lives. According to the University of Pittsburgh’s archives, the city experienced extensive damage, totalling a staggering £4.29 million ($5m).
'Big Blow'. 'Freshwater Fury'. 'White Hurricane'. The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 went by various names but remains the deadliest and most destructive natural disaster to ever hit the lakes. From 7 to 10 November, hurricane-force blizzards, thunderstorms, powerful winds, lethal waves and freezing spray battered the Great Lakes basin in the US Midwest, killed over 250 people, destroyed 19 ships and stranded 19 others. The large loss of cargo immediately caused price rises for consumer products throughout North America.
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For 18 days in May 1924, hundreds of steam explosions from the Kilauea volcano hurled mud, debris and boulders great distances, killing one photographer and sending thousands of people who had gathered to watch the spectacle scattering. The explosions doubled the diameter of the crater to around 3,300 feet (1,000m) and deepened the crater to about 1,300 feet (400m). The largest explosion occurred on 18 May, and hurled hot rocks weighing as much as eight tonnes (7,000kg) two-thirds of a mile (1km). Getting a ‘selfie’ next to one of these behemoths was the must-have shot for ‘influencers’ of the day.
On 18 March 1925, the deadliest tornado in US history ripped through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. Known as the Tri-State Tornado, it killed 747 people, including 234 people in Murphysboro, Illinois alone. Its width of up to one mile (1.6km), average speed of almost 62 miles per hour (100km/h) and peak speed of 73 miles per hour (117km/h) also make it one of the largest and fastest tornadoes in US history, at a time when the word 'tornado' was banned from weather forecasts for fear of panicking people.
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Years of sustained drought across the Southern Plains in the 1930s created a ‘Dust Bowl’, a parched region across Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas where dry winds whipped up devastating dust storms known as 'black blizzards'. The most deadly one formed in the Oklahoma panhandle on 14 April 1935, causing immense economic damage in a region still reeling from the Great Depression. It raced across the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles, reaching speeds of up to 60 miles per hour (96.5km/h) and forming a massive wall of dust that resembled a land-based tsunami.
The Dust Bowl years of 1930-1936 didn’t just bring devastating dust storms to North America. In July 1936 it produced one of the most severe heatwaves the continent has ever seen too. The Plains, Upper Midwest and Great Lakes regions sweltered under record temperatures, many of which still stand today, destroying crops and causing more than 5,000 heat-related deaths. Air conditioning was in the early stages of development, so school lessons were held outside with students wearing paper hats. Many deaths occurred in high-density areas like Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland.
On 5 April 1936 a tornado ripped through the town of Tupelo in Mississippi, claiming 216 lives and injuring over 700 people. The local hospital was one of the worst hit buildings, meaning hundreds of injured people had to be treated in a makeshift hospital in the Lee County courthouse, as well as a movie theatre and several churches. One of the survivors was a very young Elvis Presley, only 15 months old at the time. The next morning the storm system moved into Gainesville in Georgia, causing further tornadoes to develop, killing another 203 people and flattening parts of the industrial town.
Parts of New England were ravaged by deadly waves and vicious winds of up to 186 miles per hour (299km/h) when a hurricane blew in from the west and struck Long Island on 21 September 1938. Sustained hurricane force winds battered central and eastern Long Island and southeastern Connecticut, but it was the storm surge pushed ahead by the hurricane that did the most damage, sweeping entire coastal communities into the sea, including Katharine Hepburn’s Connecticut beach house.
Considered the worst on record, the blizzard of '49 covered much of South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska from 2 January. Heavy snowfall, strong winds and freezing temperatures continued into February and subsequent snow drifts saw entire houses submerged. Around 40 people are thought to have lost their lives. The loss of livestock was immense too, mitigated slightly by 'Operation Haylift' where the US Air Force air dropped a total of 550 tonnes of hay to stranded cattle across Wyoming.
On 11 May 1953 winds above 300 miles per hour (483km/h) hit Waco, Texas, tossing cars and trees around the streets, tearing down homes and reducing businesses like the five-storey Dennis Furniture store (pictured) to rubble. This terrifying tornado was categorised as the maximum F5 in severity, equalling the 1902 Goliad disaster in death toll with 114 people killed. It is often classed as the deadliest though, due to the high number of people injured – around 600. Flooding, as a result of the storm, made rescue efforts particularly difficult.
At the time it struck, Hurricane Agnes was the costliest hurricane in US history. As well as extensive damage to property and industry, the winds, rain and floods killed 122 people across eight states in the eastern part of the country. The city of Apalachicola bore the brunt of Agnes, since the hurricane first made landfall on Florida’s coast in June 1972. The area suffered millions of dollars in damages, while the storm also caused terrible flooding across Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Until its historic eruption in 1980, Mount St Helens had been considered relatively benign. It had been lying dormant since 1857 and its conical shape saw it dubbed the ‘Mount Fuji of America’. But then on 27 March, 1980 it had an explosive steam eruption, triggering an earthquake that registered at 5.1 on the Richter scale, as well as a huge landslide. The impact was catastrophic: 57 people were killed and a 200-plus-square-mile (518sq km) area of trees was razed. Surrounding valleys were also buried by lava flows.
Known as the 'Storm of the Century', this cyclonic storm formed in the Gulf of Mexico in mid-March and went on to wreak havoc across much of the east coast. The cold weather, heavy snowfall, high winds and storm surges affected 40% of the US population and caused £7.9 billion ($9.9bn) worth of damage when adjusted to today's values. A total of 318 people lost their lives and thousands of areas were left without power and suffered extensive property damage.
During the summer of 1993, the Mississippi and Missouri rivers overflowed causing catastrophic damage and destruction across the Midwest. More than 17 million acres of land were flooded over three months, with nine states affected: Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. The waters claimed at least 50 lives and destroyed roughly 10,000 homes. Millions of acres of Midwestern farmland were also submerged and remained unusable in the years that followed. It is regarded as one of the deadliest and most expensive river floods in the US, costing an estimated £12 billion ($15bn) in damages at the time.
With a damage bill coming in at over £16 billion ($20bn), the Northridge Earthquake on 17 January in California’s San Fernando Valley is one of the most expensive natural disasters in US history. The 6.7 magnitude quake caused extremely strong ground shaking: apartment blocks collapsed, freeways crumbled and 60 people are thought to have died. It could have been worse. The earthquake hit very early in the morning of a federal holiday so most residents were in bed, rather than on freeways or inside other structures that collapsed like office buildings and parking lots.
On 29 August 2005, the southeast of the US was lashed by one of the biggest hurricanes the south had ever seen. At first authorities thought New Orleans had "dodged a bullet", as the city was not directly struck by the hurricane. But a violent storm surge saw the city’s levee system breached causing catastrophic flooding, and many people took to their rooftops to await rescue. The storm led to 1,833 deaths and displaced more than 400,000 residents. It is ranked as the costliest natural disaster in US history.
One of the most damaging storms ever to make landfall in the US, Hurricane Sandy is thought to have caused 285 deaths after slamming into New York and New Jersey in October 2012. It flooded parts of New York City, near lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island, destroyed many homes along the East Coast and caused major power outages. At its height, Sandy’s tropical-storm-force winds were 870 miles (1,400km) across – roughly the distance between New York City and St Louis – which remains a record for a tropical cyclone.
Hurricane Irma made landfall at the Florida Keys and southwest Florida in September 2017 as a Category 4 storm. It left six people dead and led to torrential rains and devastating flash floods as it moved up the centre of the state to the northeast. The powerful storm caused historic levels of destruction, with a whopping £41.6 billion ($50bn) bill for damages. Irma is also the first storm on record to maintain winds as strong as 185 miles per hour (298km/h) for 37 hours.
Deadly Hurricane Maria ripped through Puerto Rico on 20 September 2017, cutting power across the US territory and leaving a horrifying trail of destruction with its 150 miles per hour (241km/h) winds. The powerful storm came just weeks after Hurricane Irma had caused substantial damage on the islands, with the response from the federal government criticised as half-hearted and slow. Maria was the strongest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in nearly a century, with the governor revising the official death count from 64 to 2,975 in 2018.
In October 2017 northern California’s wine growing region was struck by a wave of deadly wildfires that spread rapidly across the Santa Rosa and Napa valleys. Fanned by the Santa Ana winds in the south and the Diablo winds in the north, the wildfires were the most destructive in California history to that point, causing 44 deaths, the loss of 9,000 buildings and over £8 billion ($10bn) of insured losses. Global insurance broker Aon estimated that the damage to the wine industry itself from the wildfires was up to £4.8 billion ($6bn).
From 31 January to 3 February the northeastern states were hit by a powerful and erratic nor'easter that became known as the Groundhog Day nor'easter. Heavy snowfall combined with 50 mile per hour (80km/h) winds grounded flights and caused COVID-19 vaccination centres to close, bringing large swathes of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to a standstill. The storm directly caused at least six deaths and is estimated to have caused over £1.5 billion ($1.85bn) in damages.
Just before midnight on 27 November 2022, the world’s largest active volcano, Hawaii's Mauna Loa, erupted back to life, sending around 8.8 billion cubic feet (250 million cubic metres) of lava spurting from its summit. It was the first time lava had broken the caldera’s surface in 38 years, and the molten, red-hot rock quickly travelled up to 12 miles (19km) away. It was initially feared that the busy Daniel K Inouye Highway would be blocked by flows, but thankfully the lava stopped 1.5 miles (2.4km) short of the road.
California spent much of the early part of 2023 being battered by wind and rain as storms lined up over the Pacific before coming in to pound the state. Meteorologists called the prolonged bout of precipitation an ‘atmospheric river’, and by 11 January 90% of the state was under flood watch. The result was record rainfall, catastrophic damage to property and 22 fatalities. The storms continued for the rest of the month, while risk analysts Moody's estimated the loss to the economy as a result of the floods to be nearly £6 billion ($7bn).
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