December Disasters Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tornado

The Sicily tornadoes are the first recorded tornadoes on Italian soil. The exact date on which two tornadoes hit the island is not known, but on 20 December 1851 the 'Illustrated London News' reported that they had been informed, by a source in Malta, that two tornadoes, moving as a single unit less than 500 metres apart, had crossed from Marsala to Castellamare del Golfo, The report was dated 8 December, but did not give exact information about the date of the event.

As well as the destruction from the winds, there was extensive hail damage.

Much of the town of Castellamare was destroyed, and about 200 people were estimated to have died.

Answer: Typhoon

Typhoon Bopha (known in the Philippines as Typhoon Pablo) was a category 5 typhoon (with winds exceeding 250 km/hr when it made landfall on the island of Mindanao on 3 December, and ravaged several provinces before it dissipated on 9 December. Nearly 2,000 people died, and nearly 200,000 were forced to evacuate their homes, not only because of the direct storm damage but also due to the landslides that followed in some areas.

The storm system started to form on 23 November, developing into a Category 4 storm on 1 December, by which time it had already caused severe damage in the islands of Micronesia. Due to the extensive damage and loss of life, the groups responsible for naming tropical storms retired the name used: the ESCAP/WMO Typhoon Committee replaced Bopha with Ampil (first used in 2018), and the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration replaced Pablo with Pepito.

Answer: Earthquake

In the late morning of 7 December, the Armenian city of Spitak was near the epicentre of an earthquake rated on the MSK scale as X (Devastating), on a scale that goes as high as XII (Very Catastrophic). A rating of X means that there was widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure, and some change to the waters of the area, with containments breaking, new lakes forming, and the courses of rivers changing.

The nearby cities of Leninakan and Kirovakan were also badly impacted by the earthquake, which produced an uplift of over a meter along the fault line.

The damage to buildings in this event was even more severe than usual for an earthquake of this magnitude, due to an extended period in which sub-standard buildings had been constructed; this made it difficult to ascertain exactly how many people perished, as many of the buildings simply had to be demolished - it was too dangerous to attempt to retrieve any bodies.

The number has been estimated to be between 25,000 and 50,000, with over 130,000 people injured.

International efforts to assist in the aftermath of the earthquake included medical teams, rescue equipment, food and money from over a hundred other countries.

Answer: Blizzard

The December 1960 Nor'easter, as it is commonly known, dumped heavy snow along the US coast between Virginia and Maine, with the heaviest falls recorded in Newark, New Jersey, where nearly 55 cm (21 in) accumulated on the ground. To be a blizzard, of course, the snow had to be accompanied by high winds, which contributed to the havoc.

The storm, and the following severe cold weather, were blamed for nearly 300 deaths, mostly north from Pennsylvania through New England. The storm centre first developed in the Gulf of Mexico on December 10, before moving northwards and intensifying.

Many schools and businesses closed, and the disruption to commercial activities led to a downturn of Christmas shopping revenues of between five and ten per cent. Merry Christmas.

Answer: Earthquake

The earthquake that struck near the city of Dhamar (then in North Yemen, now part of Yemen) on 13 December was not one of the most destructive to be included in this quiz, but it was significant because it was the first in the area to be detected on the Worldwide Standard Seismograph Network and the Global Digital Seismograph Network. Because the area experiences many earthquakes, buildings in the larger cities (such as Sa'ana) suffered little damage - they had been constructed using appropriate earthquake-resistant methods. Smaller villages, however, were severely damaged, as their buildings were mostly simple brick structures, and over 300 villages were almost completely destroyed.

Answer: Flood

Known as the St. Lucia's flood, because it occurred on the day after St Lucia's Day, this storm surge flood was one of the largest on record. Between 50,000 and 80,000 people are believed to have died as a direct result of the flood. It had a permanent impact on the Netherlands - the Zuiderzee (Southern Sea) came into existence, when what had been a lake became connected to the North Sea when the flood removed the natural barriers.

As a result, the relative importance of a number of town changed, leading to the rise of Amsterdam as a significant city, and the loss of importance of Stavoren.

The storm that caused the flooding also had a significant impact on northern Germany and in Norfolk, England.

Answer: Earthquake-triggered landslide

The village of Sujiahe was completely buried in a landslide precipitated by a massive earthquake which struck central China in the evening of 16 December, and was followed by aftershocks that lasted for three years. Although no accurate measurements of its intensity were made at the time, it has been assigned a rating of XII (Extreme), the highest level of the Mercalli scale, which is based on the extent of destruction caused. Several cities were completely flattened due to collapsing buildings, and significant damage was experienced in multiple provinces, with most of China feeling some impact.

It is estimated that at least 200,000 people died from the earthquake itself; thousands more died of cold during the winter, as they were in temporary shelters that did not protect them from the bitter winter weather.

Answer: Cyclone

The inspiration for this quiz was the song 'Santa Never Made it Into Darwin', released by the country music pair of Bill and Boyd as part of the national fundraising efforts to help repair the Northern Territory's capital city, which was over three-quarters totally destroyed between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. Meteorologists were unable to measure the highest windspeed - the anemometer broke at 217 km/hr - but from the damage and anecdotal reports it was estimated at around 240 km/hr (150 mph). Due to a false alarm a few weeks earlier about Cyclone Selma, most residents assumed that Tracy would bypass Darwin, and engaged in their planned Christmas Eve parties rather than preparing for the storm, or evacuating in anticipation of its arrival. Because there had been a rapid growth in the city's population in the preceding years, many houses were built without being adequately prepared for a direct hit from a cyclone, which contributed to the large number of buildings destroyed. Because it was Christmas morning, and most media outlets had only minimal staff on duty, and because of the infrastructure damage, it was not until the afternoon that news of the cyclone reached the rest of the country, and relief activities began. Before the end of the year, over 35,000 residents had been evacuated, mostly by air; around 10,000 were left to work on repairing the massive infrastructural damage.

It took several years to have the city ready for the residents to return - but many never did, having settled in elsewhere.

Answer: Fires

On Christmas Eve, a fire was reported in Grose Vale, located north of Sydney in the Hawkesbury region. This was the first of over a hundred bushfires that would arise on the following days in the Sydney area, whose smoke would lead to some of the worst pollution figures ever recorded in the capital of New South Wales. Fires rages through the National Parks - Lane Cove National Park (north of the city), Royal National Park (south of the city) and Blue Mountains National Park (west of the city). Over 3,000 square kilometres (nearly 750,000 acres) burned out, with 150 homes destroyed or severely damages by the fires.

Answer: Tsunami

Also known as the Boxing Day Tsunami, this tsunami devastated large regions around the rim of the Indian Ocean, especially in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. The earthquake that triggered it, known as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, was the third largest ever recorded, with an epicentre located between the Indonesian islands of Simeulue and Sumatra.

The ensuing tsunamis, with waves up to 30 metres (100 feet) in height, killed over 225,000 people, including approximately 10,000 tourists.

In a number of places, the waves washed inland a distance of over 1 mile (1.2 kilometres).