In the last 40 years, the Haiti earthquake has been the deadliest and most destructive natural disaster, when measured by the amount of deaths per inhabitants. The following chart ranks these disasters by the “deaths per million inhabitants” column.
This is an interesting way to look at the damage caused by these disasters, as it highlights the overall percentage of deaths in each country. In the case of Haiti, approximately 2% of the population was killed. That’s a staggering number. Surely, every Haitian knew at least one person who lost their life in this tragedy.
Another takeaway is that it’s almost split evenly between earthquakes/tsunamis (a byproduct of earthquakes) and cyclones.
This article on 5 Probable Natural Disasters to Strike the United States contains some interesting predictions for the U.S. It’s founded in scientific data, but at the end of the day, it’s only an educated guess. Of course, we can never accurately predict any natural disaster. But we can be prepared for them.
It is estimated that a magnitude 7.0 earthquake is equivalent to about half a million tons of high explosives. With each increase of 1.0 in the magnitude scale, it equates to 32 times more energy! That means the earthquake in Chile was approximately 800 times stronger than the ones that hit Haiti and Japan!
Emergencies, disasters, and accidents happen when you least expect them. This is no surprise to most of us. But what may surprise you is that the average American spends more than two hours per day in the car. That equates to more than 10% of your daily schedule. If you commute to work, shuttle kids around all day, or work in a field that requires frequent travel, you are likely spending even more time behind the wheel.
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