The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
Popular Mechanics listed the 10 worst disasters of the last 101 years - and delve into whether we are more prepared to face them now as compared to then. The disasters listed are:
1906 - San Francisco Earthquake Fire
1910 - The Big Burn (of Idaho and Montana)
1918 - Spanish Flu Pandemic
1925 - Tri-State (Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana) Tornado
1938 - The New England Hurricane
1964 - The Great Alaskan Earthquake
1974 - Super Tornado Outbreak (13 states in USA)
1980 - Mount St. Helen Eruption
1993 - Storm of the Century (eastern US)
2005 - Hurricane Katrina (with largest damage in New Orleans, Louisiana)
Update 10/13/07: added US to the title - these are disasters in the USA
One disaster that is GLARINGLY missing is the Texas City Disaster in 1947 when ships bearing ammonium nitrate exploded, killing 581 people. How can they leave that one off???? It was a loss of life 10x worse than Mt. St.Helens!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster
I think they mean NATURAL disasters. Bush was courtesy of Diebold.
If you include ALL disasters, September 11 was way bigger than, say, Mt. Saint Helens.
Jan, 20/2001 - Elected G W Bush president! Oh Damn... :-)