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Peshtigo Fire
A lesser-known fire in Wisconsin that burned on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 turned out to be the nation's deadliest. The drought-stricken city of Peshtigo was set afire when a strong windstorm fueled the spread of a small group of prairie fires by fanning the blaze out over a million acres of forest land. -
Great San Francisco Fire and earthquake
San Francisco residents were abruptly awakened one spring morning by an earthquake that lasted no more than a minute, but set off a chain of events that caused the city to burn for four straight days. It not only broke natural gas mains, which sparked the fires, but also damaged water mains, leaving the fire department with limited resources to battle the blaze. -
Tri-state Tornado
Over the span of three-and-a-half destructive hours, the Tri-State Tornado became the deadliest twister to rip through the heartland. Along its path "which included Illinois, Indiana, Missouri" the tornado demolished more than 15,000 homes. Of the nearly 700 people killed, 613 were from Illinois -
Okeechobee Hurricane
-When the evacuated residents of Lake Okeechobee learned that a hurricane hadn't arrived on schedule, many returned home thinking that they had been spared. The storm, however, slammed ashore later on the evening of September 16th with sustained 140 mph winds. Such intensity broke a small dike at the lake's south end, resulting in weeks of heavy flooding that claimed at least 2,500 lives. -
Dust Bowl
-The Great Plains was a farmer's paradise. Rising demands for wheat spurred settlers to plow much of the southern plains' grassy soil to meet this need. The land was eventually exposed to erosion, since grass and tree roots that had held the moist soil in place during dry times were replaced by cash crops. A decade-long drought transformed the loose topsoil into dust, which windstorms swept up and blew eastward, darkening skies as far away as the Atlantic Coast. -
Heat wave of 1980
The heat wave of 1980 proved to be one of the nation's most catastrophic prolonged weather events. A high-pressure ridge pushed temperatures across the central and southern United States above 90 degrees Fahrenheit for most of the summer. Agricultural damage tallied an estimated $48 billion due to a massive drought, and 10,000 people died from heat and heat stress-related ailments. -
Heat wave of 1988
A year-long drought that had ravaged the agricultural economy was further exacerbated by the heat wave of 1988. Damage to the agricultural economy surpassed $61 billion, as total rainfall along the Great Plains region from April through June was even lower than during the Dust Bowl years. -
Johnstown flood
-During the late 19th Century, the small industrial community of Johnstown in Pennsylvania earned a reputation as a producer of high-quality steel. All that progress was flushed away when the poorly maintained South Fork dam that stood high up in the mountains, 14 miles from the city, failed. Days of torrential downpour caused the dam to burst, unleashing more than 20 million tons of water and debris to crash down on the city. -
Hurricane Galvestone
-Galveston was known at the end of the 19th Century as the "Jewel of Texas" until the single deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history wiped away much of what had been a booming future. -
Hurricane Katrina
The Atlantic storm that began as a category 1 hurricane as it blew across southern Florida wound up being the country's costliest tragedy. Katrina roared into the Louisiana coast with 125 mph sustained winds, causing a storm surge that broke levees that shielded New Orleans from surrounding, higher coastal waters, and leaving 80 percent of the city under water.
