Natural disasters
Definition Meteorologic and geologic events
resulting in significant loss of life or property
Key natural disasters of the decade revealed the effects of
technological advances in forecasting such events and also
highlighted the extent to which the course of such disasters
could be shaped by trends like population growth and eco-
nomic development.
In 1980, the modernization of the U.S. National
Weather Service took a huge step forward when the
Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), the Department
of Defense, and the National Weather Service (NWS)
launched a joint agreement to develop NEXRAD
(Next Generation Weather Radar). The resulting
Doppler radar’s high resolution greatly aided fore-
casters’ ability to predict troublesome weather and
to issue watches and warnings in a more timely fash-
ion. Although the new technology would not be fully
employed until the 1990’s, it played a significant role
in the forecasting of the greatest natural disasters of
the 1980’s.El Niño, Temperature Extremes, and Resulting Disas-
ters The 1980’s saw a number of disastrous floods,
which many scientists linked to the presence of El
Niño, a periodic warming of Pacific Ocean waters
off the coast of South America that affects global
weather conditions. In 1982 and 1983, a series of
storms brought flooding to both the western United
States and the states along the Gulf coast, resulting
in approximately one hundred deaths and billions
of dollars in damages. Excessive regional rains pro-
duced flooding in Mississippi in 1983 and in Virginia
and West Virginia in 1985, resulting in approxi-
mately seventy deaths and billions of dollars in dam-
ages. From 1983 to 1986, flooding along the shore-
line of the Great Salt Lake in Utah also caused
billions of dollars in damages. A major flood in St.The Eighties in America Natural disasters 697
Sections of the Cypress Viaduct along Northern California’s Interstate 880 collapsed during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which
measured 7.1 on the Richter scale.(USGS)