25 Questions about Great Disasters | History

Answer: San Francisco

At 5:13 am on April 18, 1906, a terrific earthquake tore through San Francisco and the area around it. The resulting fire raged for three days, destroying most of San Francisco. Several things contributed to the disaster, including the death of the fire chief, the breaking of water mains so that there was no water to fight the fire, and ironically, the actions of the officials to fight the fire by dynamiting homes and businesses to create fire breaks.

This quake is estimated to have registered 8.3 on the Richter Scale.

Answer: Ukraine

Chernobyl was a disaster waiting to happen. The Soviet Union at the time lived in a restrictive society where information was controlled by the top officials. The people in charge of the nuclear power program were kept in the dark about problems at other plants with the result that they did not know about potential problems.

The engineers had to satisfy both regional and national parties and they lived in an almost "cuckoo clock world" where they were told to procede with plans whether or not the materials were available to them or not.

The death toll ranges from the official view of a very few deaths to the even more incredible view that there might be more ultimate victims than were killed in World War II.

Answer: Bhopal, India

An estimated 300,000 more people have suffered devastating effects from this. Poor maintenance is generally believed to have caused the disaster. Even though the workers in the plant realized devastating gas was leaking out into a poisonous cloud, no one thought to sound a siren to let the people of Bhopal know what was going on. Lititgation still continues. Union Carbide ran the plant and accusations were tossed back and forth for years about who was at fault. No one seems to remember the innocent victims who were killed or injured.

This is one of America's darkest moments in foreign relations.

Answer: Spanish Flu

Because it was first reported in the Spanish press, the name "Spanish flu" was applied although it appears to have surfaced first at Fort Riley, Kansas. Soldiers heading to Europe spread the disease there and homeward bound soldiers and sailors spread it around the world.

In 1997, scientists retrieved a strain saved from the epidemic and analyzed it. They discovered that the strain had passed from birds to pigs to humans. One reason it was so deadly was that victims' lungs rapidly filled up with fluid causing them to die as if drowned. Experts feel that it is very likely that another plague like this will occur again.

Answer: Mexico City, Mexico

Around 5,500 died and 40,000 were injured. In one of the most heartrending scenes, the seven-story obstetrics wing of the General Hospital collapsed, killing almost all of the 280 patients and staff.
Seven days later a tiny newborn was found alive. A Mexican taxicab driver said when told that among the ruined government buildings were all the tax offices: "Maybe there is a God."

Answer: Pompeii

The Roman historian Pliny the Younger described the death of Pompeii, Italy while observing it from a ship at sea. Also destroyed by the same volcano, Mount Vesuvius, were the cities Herculaneum and Stabiae. Mount Vesuvius has remained a constant threat, there were about 10 minor eruptions over the next 1500 years.

There have also been major eruptions in 1631, 1794, 1872, 1906, and 1944. The volcano is still monitored closely.

Answer: False

That honor goes to Mount Etna, near Catania on the island of Sicily, which has been active for some two million years with more than 250 eruptions in recorded history. Among the most violent eruptions have been the ones in 475 BC, 1169 AD, and in 1669 when more than 20,000 were killed. Recently eruptions have occured in 1971, 1979, 1983 and 1992.

Answer: False

This explosion didn't kill anyone on Krakatoa itself. However, fire, molten lava, and rains of ash and rock were hurled across an area larger than France. It also spawned giant waves and tides halfway around the world. Other volcanos also erupted as if in sympathy.

At least 36,000 people worldwide died and the volcano is still active today. "Krakatoa, East of Java" was a movie about the eruption released in 1969. Of course, the title is a geographical mistake because Krakatoa is actually west of Java!

Answer: Killed nearly all the inhabitants of the city of Saint Pierre

Louis Mouttet, the Governor of Martinique, was very afraid that his party would suffer if the people evacuated the capital city of Saint Pierre before voting so he downplayed the dangers. He even went as far as putting up roadblocks in order to prevent the people from leaving the city.

The eruption didn't distinguish between political parties however, but killed the governor as well as 30,000 people in less than two minutes. Ironically, Auguste Ciparis, a condemned prisoner who was scheduled to be executed the next morning was one of only two known survivors.

He was reprieved and spent the rest of his life traveling with the Barnum and Bailey Circus telling people how he survived in his underground cell.

Answer: Mount Saint Helens

Mount Saint Helens in the Cascade Mountains in Washington State, America was indeed one of the most covered explosions in history. 62 people died including several members of the scientific study team who had set up at what they thought was a safe distance from the volcano.

More than 200 square miles was instantly transformed into a scorched wasteland. Proving that people are extremely shortsighted, the area around the mountain was turned into a tourist attraction and designated a National Volcano Monument.

Answer: Florence

Human error contributed to the disaster because the custodians of the Arno River's hydroelectric dams opened the flood gates too late to help avert the flooding. More than 100,000 people were trapped in their homes for days on the upper floors and roofs and 149 were drowned.

Some of the precious artworks were ruined beyond repair but a group of volunteers spent weeks aiding the restoration work.

Answer: Lightning

Of the arsenal's 180 buidlings, only 16 were left standing. All structures within 2,800 feet of the explosion were vaporized, buildings up to 4.3 miles away suffered severe damage. Blasts were heard and felt up to 50 miles away. Fortunately this occured on a Saturday when only a skeleton staff was on duty, so there only 30 people were killed.

Answer: Lightning

Usually lightning just causes a hole in the skin of the plane, however the lightning was found to have ignited an explosive blend of fuel and air in a reserve tank.

Answer: False

The eruptions of Mount Soufriere in the West Indies in 1812, Mount Mayon, Philippines in 1814, and Mount Tambor, Java in 1815 all combined to throw great amounts of debris into the atmosphere and lower temperatures around the world. In June in Vermont there were reports of snowdrifts as high as 20 inches deep. Famines caused by the destruction of crops caused an estimated 50,000 victims worldwide by 1818. Coming so close to the destructive Napoleonic Wars, the lost harvest contributed to the European economic depression of 1817-1819.

Answer: 4000

The immediate result was the Clean Air Act of 1956, imposing smokeless zones in residential areas. While some 4,000 died choking to death, another 8,000 were said to have died from longer term effects.

Answer: Galveston, Texas

As a result of the storm, hurricane warning systems were installed in the US. Built on a low-laying island, Galveston was destroyed not only by the wind but by flooding. Driven by a wind estimated at 100-120 miles an hour, ten inches of rain fell on the city in a few hours.

Answer: Japan

Because all essential services were disrupted, many people drank polluted water, leading to outbreaks of dysentery and typhus. Some 25,000 people were left homeless and 800 square miles were destroyed.

Answer: False

That honor goes to the shipwreck of the Sultana, a Mississippi riverboat that exploded on the Mississippi River the night of April 27, 1865. Most of the 2,500 people crowded on the ship (licensed to carry only a couple of hundred people) were former prisoners of war from the Civil War prison of Andersonville, Georgia.

The ship carried no life boats or life jackets. Most of the men were too emaciated and sick to swim to the shore even though the ship was no further than a few hundred feet from shore.

The boiler was not maintained as it should have been and exploded tearing the ship and its passengers apart.

Answer: Fleas from rats

There were three different types of plague that were present in the "Black Death". Bubonic plague which got its name from the swellings (buboes) that formed in its victims which, within a week, killed 75% of those stricken. There was also the septicaemic plague, where the plague entered the bloodstream and killed within 24 hours, and the pneumonic plague, which affected the lungs and was spread by coughing and sneezing which killed in 95% of cases.

It was not until 1894 when the plague bacillus, Pasteurella Pestis, was finally identified.

Answer: Earthquake and landslide

First a massive shock of 7.75 on the Richter Scale occurred about 15 miles off the Pacific Coast. This alone killed around 70,000 people and left 50,000 injured and 200,000 homeless. Then the earthquake caused the inactive volcano, Huascaran, to release a massive landslide of ice, snow, rock and mud, killing another estimated 25,000 and burying several small villages under debris up to 40 feet deep.

Answer: Bangladesh

When the cyclone roared up the Bay of Benegal at 100 miles per hours, most people were caught unprepared. Massive waves 20-50 feet high hit the offshore islands and caught people sleeping in their huts and washed them out to sea. After the flood waters passed, bodies were left hanging in trees and the sea gave up more dead every hour. One villager said, "We have buried 5,000 in mass graves, we cannot dig any more."

Answer: Darwin

Darwin at the time was a city of 47,000. With the chaos and confusion after the cyclone, within a week Darwin looked like a ghost town after 25,000 people left. However, the frontier spirit prevailed, and in the 1993 census the population had grown to nearly 78,000.

Answer: Exxon Valdez

Captain Joseph Hazelwood was off the bridge just 15 feet away completing paperwork and the third mate, Gregory Cousins, was in charge on the bridge in violation of regulations which stated the second mate, Robert Kagan, should have been on the deck if the captain wasn't.

The coastguard which should have been monitoring the Valdez's position by radar, lost her on their radar screens. Then they took three hours to get to her after she was grounded. The clean-up crews did not reach her until ten hours after the accident.

By then the accident had caused the largest oil slick known in history, covering some 900 square miles. The final body count was grim: 86,000 birds, among them 139 rare bald eagles, 984 sea otters, 25,000 fish, 200 seals and several dozen beavers. Several beaches had to be treated seven times with detergents and chemicals and the effects are still ongoing today.

Answer: 583

The Pan American airplane, piloted by Captain Victor Grubbs, was rammed by the KLM clipper piloted by Captain Jacob Louis Veldhuyzen, KLM's chief jumbo instructor, during take-off. The main airport at Las Palmas had been closed down because of a terrorist bomb explosion and traffic had been diverted to the second rate facility at Los Rodeos. Captain Veldhuyzen was ultimately blaimed for the accident although Los Rodeos had never had a great reputation as a safe airport. Misunderstanding of radio instructions, and Captain Veldhuyzen's rushing to take-off to avoid KLM's standing rule against overtime may have played a part in the disaster.

Answer: No

After several years of speculation, the belief was shattered in July 1986 when photography revealed a series of small gashes on her side. The speculation that the steel used in her construction was of an inferior quality has been discussed ever since. That doesn't change the fact that the great liner was traveling without sufficent lifeboats to rescure her 2227 passengers and crew. Only 705 survived.