Monster Storms of the 21st Century

Hurricane Katrina

Katrina left more than 1,800 dead and caused more than $125 billion in damage. Although preliminary estimates from the March 11, 2011 earthquake in Japan are already higher, Hurricane Katrina now ranks as the 21st century’s most expensive natural catastrophe.

Cyclone Nargis

Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar (Burma) in May 2008 with winds peaking at 121 mph. Nargis would become the most destructive cyclone to ever strike the country. It killed more than 140,000 people and caused more than $4 billion worth of damage.

Cyclone Nargis

The country’s secretive military government didn't always help matters. According to reports, it initially refused to accept relief aid from the international community. Some said officials stopped counting and reporting the dead after fatalities hit 138,000.

Hurricane Jeanne

Hurricane Jeanne

In Haiti, the heavy rains and winds caused an estimated 1,500 deaths. Another 31 were killed in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Jeanne finally made landfall in the United States along the South Central Coast of Florida near Stuart with winds of 120 mph. The final damage total was estimated to be $6.9 billion.

Joplin tornado

Late on a Sunday afternoon, May 22,  a tornado was spotted. When it reached the ground it was more than a mile wide. Its destructive path tore through the southern sections of Joplin, Mo., killing 160 people. The estimated losses topped $2 billion, the highest in Missouri history.

The Joplin Globe reported that 54 percent of the people died in their homes, 32 percent died in non-residential areas and 14 percent died in vehicles or outdoors.

Photo: This three-photo combo shows scenes from May 27, 2011 (top), July 21, 2011  (center) and May 7, 2012 (bottom). It reveals progress made in Joplin in the year following the tornado.

Pakistan floods

The 2010 La Niña led to widespread flooding in Pakistan. The monsoons were so devastating they left as much as one-fifth of the country’s total land mass (approximately 307,000 square miles) under water. Pakistani officials estimate more than 20 million of the country’s population were affected, mostly through destruction of property, livelihood and infrastructure. The floods left between 1,700 and 2,000 dead. 

Photo: A Pakistani flood survivor wades through water with her children at Shah Jamal village in Punjab province on Aug. 20, 2010.

Tohoku earthquake and tsunami

The massive magnitude-9.0 earthquake that struck Japan on March 11, 2011 was the most powerful to ever hit the island nation and one of the five most powerful ever recorded. It killed an estimated 20,448 people and ripped a 300-mile gash in the ocean floor that caused a catastrophic tsunami. It moved the city of Honshu eight feet east and shifted the Earth’s axis by as much as 10 inches.

Tohoku earthquake and tsunami

The tsunami caused level-7 meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex. Hundreds of thousands of residents were displaced. As many as 4.4 million households were left without power.

Tohoku earthquake and tsunami

Early estimates placed insured losses between $14.5 billion to $34.6 billion. The disaster sent five million tons of debris into the Pacific Ocean, including everything from a ghost trawler to a lost Harley Davidson motorcycle, which later washed ashore in British Columbia, Canada. (Harley-Davidson has offered to clean up the bike and restore it to rideable condition.)

Southern U.S. tornado outbreak

In the worst outbreak of tornadoes to hit the U.S. since the Great Depression, eight southern states were left devastated in April 2011. Tuscaloosa, Ala. was one of the worst hit. More than 2,000 National Guard troops were called out to help in the relief effort.

One town would run out of body bags and be forced to store the dead in a refrigerated truck.

The death toll reached 238 in Alabama, 34 in Tennessee and Mississippi, 15 in Georgia, five in Virginia, two in Louisiana and one in Kentucky.

Photo: Tracy Sargent of K9 Search and Rescue Specialists Inc. searches for a body with her dog, Chance, on May 2, 2011 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand tsunami

Caused by a massive 9.3-magnitude earthquake deep in the ocean, the tsunami that hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand in December 2004 killed an estimated 283,100 people and caused billions of dollars in damage.

Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand tsunami

Hundreds of thousands of people wound up homeless. 

Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand tsunami

The shifting of the Earth’s plates in the Indian Ocean caused a rupture more than 600 miles long, displacing the seafloor above the rupture by perhaps 10 yards horizontally and several yards vertically.

Hurricane Ivan

At its peak in the Gulf of Mexico in September 2004, Hurricane Ivan was the size of the state of Texas. It spawned 119 tornadoes across the eastern United States. It killed 91 people directly and 31 died indirectly as a result.

Hurricane Ivan

Ivan killed 64 people in the Caribbean—mainly in Grenada and Jamaica—three in Venezuela, and 25 in the United States, including 14 in Florida. Ninety percent of the houses on Grenada were damaged. Waves as high as 25 feet were reported.

Ivan killed 64 people in the Caribbean—mainly in Grenada and Jamaica—three in Venezuela, and 25 in the United States, including 14 in Florida.

Ninety percent of the houses on Grenada were damaged. Waves as high as 25 feet were reported.

Photo: Mike Mackey of Louisiana works his cadaver dog Bandit through a demolished apartment complex in Tuscaloosa, Ala. on May 4, 2011.

Hurricane Ike

The third-costliest storm to hit the U.S., Hurricane Ike devastated a broad swath of land from Texas to Mississippi to the Florida Panhandle, causing $37.6 billion ($38 billion in 2010 dollars) in damage and as many as 50 deaths.

Hurricane Ike

Ike led to the largest evacuation in Texas state history, despite about 40 percent of Galveston residents staying put.