On November 12th, 1970, the deadliest cyclone in the history of Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, struck around the northwest shores of the Bay of Bengal. East Pakistan was undergoing widespread poverty at the time, leading to a wide range of uncertainty in the death toll of the cyclone (Encyclopedia 501). Tensions between East and West Pakistan were at large at the time, leading West Pakistan to be disinclined to assisting East Pakistan in recovering from the storm (History 4). This became a factor to the national mutilation of East Pakistan (Geol 1). This calamity is by no means the strongest storm in history. The storm merely struck the worst possible place at the worst possible time (Disaster 172). Due to this, Bhola is frequently recognized as the most devastating tropical storm in history (International 5).
In 1970, East Pakistan, about the size of Wisconsin, had a substantial population of 66 million, meaning that each square kilometer holds about 400 people (Disaster 174). It is located precisely where two large river systems, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, unite to form the biggest delta in the world, the Ganges River Delta. A delta is a triangular deposit of sediment at the mouth of a river, naturally where it diverges. The two rivers conduct silt from as far as the Himalayas to the floodplains of Bangladesh, which are about 1,200 miles apart. Being one of the world’s most fertile croplands, the floodplain is densely populated. Farmers are forced to move farther and farther out into the delta, triggering them to face the perilous monsoon season, which is from June to October. One third of East Pakistan is no more than twenty feet above sea level, maximizing the death toll of life-threatening storms (History 3). The a...
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John M. Barry's Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, takes us back 70 years to a society that most of us would hardly recognize.
Isaac’s Storm, by Erik Larson was a very fascinating book because it is difficult to say absolutely what the true subject of the book is. There are three key players in the book, first it is Isaac Cline a meteorologist for the U.S Weather Bureau, The U.S. Weather Bureau itself, and finally the storm of 1900. However, all three elements collaborate with one another in a significant way. The storm of 1900 is the main catalyst for one of the most devastating storms in the United States. However, the Weather Bureau and Isaac Cline both had an impact on the outcome of the catastrophic storm. The book generally focuses on the Galveston Hurricane of 1990, but more so the actions that Isaac Cline takes, or didn’t take rather. It was very tricky to
On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina, the most expensive hurricane in American history, made landfall in Louisiana with winds of one hundred and twenty-seven miles per hour (“Hurricane Katrina Statistics Fast Facts”). The sheer magnitude of the amount of lives and property lost was enormous, and it was triggered simply by warm ocean waters near the Bahamas ("How Hurricane Katrina Formed"). Nature was indifferent to whether the raging winds and rain would die off in the ocean or wipe out cities; it only follows the rules of physics. A multitude of American authors has attempted to give accounts and interpretations of their encounters with the disinterested machine that is nature. Two authors, Stephen Crane and Henry David Thoreau, had rather contrasting and conflicting interpretations of their own interactions with nature. Crane’s work, “The Open Boat,” is story based on his experience as a survivor
Once there was, as never before, a hurricane of great might and strength. As never before, there once was a hurricane of many names: storm, cyclone, tempest, typhoon, and flood. Yet it has lived on in history as the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Humanity has glorified and immortalized the hurricane. The Great Galveston Hurricane has been the subject of numerous articles, novels, plays, and poems, as well as four major nonfiction studies (Longshore). It is truly one of hurricane lore’s greatest of storms.
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Regina:The Early Years. (2014). Cyclone of 1912. Regina: The Early Years 1880 -1950. Retrieved March 7, 2014, from http://scaa.usask.ca/gallery/regina/central/cyclone.html
Davidson, J. W. & Lytle, M. H. (2009a). Dust Bowl Odyssey. In, After the Fact. The Art of
Disasters are often followed by reports of damages to the built environment—the cost of buildings, roads, bridges, electricity lines, stores, schools and hospitals. These of course follow the death toll and economic and social impacts of citizen’s lives. It was not different from Hurricane Ike, whose 20-foot surge left one of the biggest damage ever. The stories of how it impacted other things for the benefit do not make much of the well-known history. For Gene Straatmeyer, a resident of Bolivar Peninsula— which was most hit by the storm, the story is not just about how destructive it was.
Natural Disasters have always been a major part of history. The disasters have helped shape history as we know it today. The influence of these disasters also can’t be ignored. One such disaster that left its mark on history was the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl was a period in the 30s in which severe dust storms swept across Southern plains of the United States (Dust Bowl). The Dust Bowl got its name when it first appeared in a newspaper article on April 15, 1935 (Shum). The Dust Bowl occurred due to widespread drought in the region and severe erosion (Long 1). The drought and violent winds caused widespread crop failure and the discouraged farmers did not practice proper erosion prevention measures (Long 1). The Storm engulfed the plains in a
Hurricanes are formed over tropical waters. These intense storms consist of winds over 74 miles per hour (Ahrens & Sampson, 2011). The storms addressed here are Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy. This paper will explore the contrasts and comparisons between these two horrific storms.
On August 27, 1965, a weather satellite detected a weak tropical disturbance, which was named Betsy, near the Barbados. However, by August 29th the “disturbance” had grown into a hurricane. Betsy not only became one of the most dangerous, but also one of the most expensive storms in the history of the United States. In fact, Time Magazine has rated Hurricane Betsy number 11 in its “Most Destructive U.S. Hurricanes of All Time.” Moreover, this famous hurricane gained the nickname “Billion Dollar Betsy” because it was the first tropical storm to have caused more than $1 billion dollars in damage.
Hurricanes are powerful and destructive storms that involve great rain and wind. The United States of America has dealt with many hurricanes that have cost a great amount of damage. However, there is one hurricane that happened in 2005 that stands out among the others, Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst hurricanes to hit the United States, a category 5 on the Saffir/Simpson Hurricane Scale. An estimated 1836 people died because of the hurricane and the floodings that happened after (Zimmermann 1). Katrina initially beg...
Laukaitis, Algis J. "The Blizzard of 1888 -- the Force of a White Hurricane -- Hit 125 Years Ago." JournalStar.com. JournalStar, 11 Jan. 2013. Web. 04 Mar. 2014.
This, however, does not mean that India is solely responsible for certain deadlocks, even though its share of responsibility may be larger than other countries which have their own physical limitations and political apprehensions. As elsewhere in the world, and more particularly in the subcontinent where population explosion continues and environmental degradation worsens, water resources, like energy, are going to be much lower than the increasing demand, even if they are harnessed to the most optimum. Given the depleting resources of water, the issues of human security, and water security as its most crucial part, are going to assume astronomical proportions. The issues of water distribution and management are bringing not only countries of the region, but also states and regions within provinces into conflict since they are not being settled amicably within a grand framework of riparian statutes respecting upstream and downstream rights. What is, however, quite appreciable is that the countries of the subcontinent have made certain remarkable efforts to resolve their differences over water distribution through bilateral agreements.