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Krakatoa (aka Krakatau),
*The ash Krakatoa spewed into the air traveled as far as New York and cooled temperatures globally for years to come.
*At least one of the blasts was heard thousands of miles away.
*Over 36,000 people died, most in the resulting tsunamis. -
Great Chilean Quake
*It wasn't the deadliest or most destructive quake on record, but in terns of brute strength, the 9.5 magnitude earthquake centered in Valdivia, Chile, was the strongest ever recorded
*The Valdivia quake left at least 1,600 people dead (though some sources estimate as many as 5,700 dead) and 2 million without homes.
*The tsunami eventually reached as far away as Hawaii, where 61 people were killed, and Japan, where 138 lost their lives. -
Storm of the Century
*Eleven tornadoes, hurricane-force winds in the South, a snowed-in Eastern Seaboard and torrential rain elsewhere characterized March 1993's "superstorm."
*The monstrous weather event stretched from Cuba to Canada and may indeed have been the "storm of the century."
*The storm caused up to $6 billion in damage and left millions without power. It also cost 300 people their lives. -
Indian Ocean Tsunami
*Spreading over 14 countries,
*it killed nearly 230,000 people and displaced some 1.7 million more.
*Water levels rose worldwide and waves up to 100 feet high inundated smaller islands. -
Hurricane Katrina
*More than 1,800 people lost their lives as Katrina challenged an infrastructure that was never designed to handle such migh
*Katrina's maximum sustained winds of 175 mph made it the fourth most severe Atlantic hurricane on record
*By the end of the 2005 hurricane season, forecasters had exhausted the full alphabet of storm names and turned to Greek letters to do the job.