Disasters

  • Disasters,  This Day in History

    1951 Historic Flooding in Kansas

    History making flood devastates Kansas on July 13, 1951. 500,000 people were left homeless and 24 people died. The Midwestern United States had not seen such destruction from flooding as great as this, since record taking had begun. It was on the unluckiest of days, Friday the 13th, that some call Black Friday, when the flood swept down the Kansas River valley and into the Missouri River basin. Above-average rainfall beginning in June and lasting through July 13th brought well over 25 inches to towns in eastern Kansas. Most affected major towns were Manhattan, Topeka and Lawrence. Also, 10,000 farms were destroyed as well. The crest of the flood exceeded…

  • Disasters,  Oklahoma History,  Weather

    Top Ten Deadliest Tornadoes in Oklahoma History

    Rank City Date Scale Fatalities Injuries 1 Woodward 4/9/1947 F5 116 782 2 Snyder 5/10/1905 F5 97* 58* 3 Peggs 5/2/1920 F4 71 100 4 Antlers 4/12/1945 F5 69 353 5 Pryor 4/27/1942 F4 52 350 6 (Bridge Creek-Newcastle-Moore-Oklahoma City) 5/3/1999 F5 36 583 7 Oklahoma City 6/12/1942 F4 35 100 8 Cleveland County 04/25/1893 F4 33 ~100 9 (Newcastle-South Oklahoma City-Moore) 5/20/2013 EF5 24 – 10 Bethany 11/19/1930 F4 23 150 Source: National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office, Norman, OK

  • Disasters,  Oklahoma History,  Weather

    Tornado History

    It has been confirmed that the Friday, May 31, 2013 tornado, that brought destruction and death to El Reno, OK, was the widest ever in recorded history. Per the National Weather Service and a leading researcher, Howard Bluestein, no other tornado has ever reached such a mammoth breadth. The El Reno tornado stretched a maximum width of 2.6 miles. Read More

  • Disasters,  Earthquakes,  Volcanoes

    Pacific Ring of Fire a Volatile Place

      The Aleutian island chain, Andes mountains of South America and the Micronesia tropics make up  the geographical region known as the “Ring of Fire.” Plates underlying these areas on the Earth are made up of subduction zones. These are zones where oceanic tectonic plate go under a continental plate or another oceanic plate. This results in the increased volcanic and earthquake activity we have seen throughout history in this aptly named “Pacific Ring of Fire”. The Solomon Islands are a part of this geographically volitile place, which saw a magnitude 8 earthquake in its nearby region today, Febuary 6, 2013, and has resulted in a Tsunami warning. Tsunamis are the sometimes seen side effect when earthquakes rattle the…

  • Disasters,  Earthquakes

    Super Earthquakes in History

    1. Chile 1960 05 22 9.5 -38.29 -73.05 Kanamori, 1977 2. Prince William Sound, Alaska 1964 03 28 9.2 61.02 -147.65 Kanamori, 1977 3. Off the West Coast of Northern Sumatra 2004 12 26 9.1 3.30 95.78 Park et al., 2005 4. Near the East Coast of Honshu, Japan 2011 03 11 9.0 38.322 142.369 PDE 5. Kamchatka 1952 11 04 9.0 52.76 160.06 Kanamori, 1977 6. Offshore Maule, Chile 2010 02 27 8.8 -35.846 -72.719 PDE 7. Off the Coast of Ecuador 1906 01 31 8.8 1.0 -81.5 Kanamori, 1977 8. Rat Islands, Alaska 1965 02 04 8.7 51.21 178.50 Kanamori, 1977 9. Northern Sumatra, Indonesia 2005 03 28…