Natural disasters
Definition Meteorologic and geologic events
resulting in significant loss of life or property
During the 1990’s, 3,397 people in the United States and
54 people in Canada died as a result of natural disasters.
Natural disasters are conceptually divided into geo-
logic disasters (earthquakes, avalanches, landslides,
and volcanic eruptions) and climatic disasters
(floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, heat waves, bliz-
zards, droughts, and wildfires).
Earthquakes In the 1990’s, Canada experienced
no earthquake of significance. No one was killed in
any of the very small earthquakes that occurred, and
only minimal damage resulted. On the other hand,
the United States had eight major earthquakes dur-
ing the decade.
The worst earthquake of the decade occurred on
January 17, 1994, in Northridge, one of the north-
ern suburbs of Los Angeles. Felt as far away as 400 ki-
lometers from the epicenter, the earthquake had an
impact over 200,000 square kilometers, including
the heavily populated areas of Santa Monica,
Malibu, Santa Clarita, the Simi Valley, and west and
central Los Angeles. Fifty-seven people were killed,
sixty thousand buildings were damaged, six major
bridges collapsed, and five freeway overpasses fell.
The cost of this earthquake exceeded $20 billion.
On February 28, 1990, an earthquake injured
thirty people and caused $12.7 million in damages
in the city of Upland in Southern California. An-
other small earthquake affected the area around Al-
amo in Northern California at the end of March,
- A year later, on June 28, 1991, an earthquake
struck near Pasadena in Southern California, result-
ing in property damage equaling $33.5 million, the
deaths of two people, and injuries to another hun-
dred. On April 25, 1992, a quake in the Cape
Mendocino area of Northern California caused $75
million in damage and injured ninety-four people.
Two months later, the town of Landers in Southern
California was severely damaged by an earthquake,
killing one, injuring three hundred, and causing de-
struction amounting to $100 million. It also trig-
gered a second large earthquake that day in the
mountain resort town of Big Bear. Outside Califor-
nia, the town of Klamath Falls in Oregon was hit in
1993 by an earthquake that killed two, displaced
three thousand people, and caused $7.5 million in
damage. The last earthquake of significance of the
decade occurred on December 26, 1994, in Eureka,
affecting 225 people and causing $2.1 million in
damage.
Avalanches and Landslides During the 1990’s, the
United States ranked second among all nations in
the number of deaths caused by avalanches, with
about 17 percent of the world avalanche fatalities.
Canada ranked sixth, with about 8 percent of the fa-
talities. The number of people killed in avalanches
was the highest in Alaska, Colorado, and Utah and
increased steadily during the decade as the number
of snowmobiles grew and imprudent people ex-
plored more remote areas in the wilderness.
During the winter of 1997, several large land-
slides occurred in California along Highway 50 be-
tween Placerville and South Lake Tahoe. Called the
Mill Creek landslide, this event forced authorities to
close the well-traveled highway for four weeks.
Landslides occur regularly during the rainy sea-
son on the bluffs and hillsides of Seattle and other
areas of the Puget Sound region. During the decade,
there were 334 landslides within the northwest of
the United States. In 1990, 1996, and 1997, winter
storms triggered landslides. About 70 percent of the
landslides occurred in 1997, and it is not surprising
that the heaviest damage took place that year as well,
causing the deaths of four people on Bainbridge Is-
land in Washington during a heavy winter storm.
In Canada, British Columbia suffered severe dam-
age from landslides in Donna Creek (1992), Chisca
River (1995), Buckinghorse River (1995), Chilli-
wack River (1997), Bear River Valley (1997), Capri-
corn Creek (1998), Five Mile Creek (1999), and
Clanwilliam (1999). In Ontario, the South Nation
River Valley landslide of 1993 was similarly destruc-
tive.
Floods In the 1990’s, there were fifty-five major
floods in the United States and Canada. Forty-nine
of these floods happened in the United States, kill-
ing four hundred, while the remaining six, in Can-
ada, killed twenty-five. The worst of these floods took
place in 1993, affecting the Mississippi River and 150
major rivers and tributaries that flow into it, causing
fifty fatalities and costing almost $15 billion. This
flood was one of the most severe ever recorded in the
United States. It was caused by intense late spring
precipitation in the eastern Dakotas, southern Min-The Nineties in America Natural disasters 607