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What's the worst disaster ever?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Batman, Sep 4, 2007.

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What's the worst natural or man-made disaster in history?

  1. Chernobyl meltdown (1986)

    1 vote(s)
    2.2%
  2. Hurricane Katrina (2005)

    3 vote(s)
    6.5%
  3. San Francisco earthquake (1906)

    1 vote(s)
    2.2%
  4. Hurricane Mitch (1998)

    1 vote(s)
    2.2%
  5. Mount Vesuvius eruption (79 A.D.)

    2 vote(s)
    4.3%
  6. 1918 Flu outbreak

    7 vote(s)
    15.2%
  7. Indian Ocean tsunami (2004)

    2 vote(s)
    4.3%
  8. Bhopal chemical leak (1980-something)

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  9. Johnstown flood (1889)

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  10. Galveston hurricane (1900)

    3 vote(s)
    6.5%
  11. Titanic sinks (1912)

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  12. Michigan vs. Appalachian State (2007)

    9 vote(s)
    19.6%
  13. Bubonic plague (Europe, 1300s)

    13 vote(s)
    28.3%
  14. Hindenburg explodes (1936)

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  15. Krakatoa (1883?)

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  16. Other

    4 vote(s)
    8.7%
  1. Claws for Concern

    Claws for Concern Active Member

    Tie: Caddyshack 2 and Slap Shot 2
     
  2. ink-stained wretch

    ink-stained wretch Active Member

    1. Lite beer
    1A. Lean beef
    1B. Panty hose
    1C. Neo-conservatives
     
  3. Birdscribe

    Birdscribe Active Member

    To this, you can add Stalin's idiotic collectivization policies in the early 1930s that resulted in nearly 30 million people starving to death.

    Add millions more during the purges later that decade and it's not hard to see why the Soviet Union got its ass kicked in the opening days of WW II.

    Anyway, I was going with the Indian Ocean tsunami until I saw the 1918-21 influenza epidemic, which killed between 40 million and 50 million people -- 675,000 of those Americans, many of whom were either in Europe or just coming back.

    And for you Black Death fans, this killed more people in one year than the Black Death did in four.
     
  4. Howard Dean speech, Jan. 19, 2004.
     
  5. Chi City 81

    Chi City 81 Guest

    How many people died in the Irish Potato Famine?
     
  6. markvid

    markvid Guest

    I was looking through the list and seriously contemplating what I'd vote for when I noticed the Michigan one.
    That made me laugh very hard.
     
  7. TwoGloves

    TwoGloves Well-Known Member

    Cop Rock.
     
  8. EStreetJoe

    EStreetJoe Well-Known Member

    The 2000 U.S. Presidential election ;D
     
  9. Dyno

    Dyno Well-Known Member

    The only one of those that affected my family was the 1918 flu pandemic. At least one, possibly two, of my relatives died in that, including one of my dad's aunts, who left behind two kids under the age of three. That's why it got my vote.
     
  10. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Krakatoa, Vesuvius, the Black Death, the Yangtze River flood, the 1918 flu pandemic and the Permian Extinction Event obviously wouldn't place on "What's Now?"

    ::) ::)
     
  11. IGotQuestions

    IGotQuestions Member

    The flu pandemic vs. bubonic plague debate lacks perspective:

    While more people died of the one-year flu outbreak than the four-year Bubonic Plague (Black Death), keep in mind the flu hit in 1918, while the plague was 550 years earlier with a much smaller overall population at the time; 21,000,000 or so flu deaths vs. estimates of 25-30,000,000 plague deaths. There were about 2 billion people worldwide in 1918 compared to estimates of 350,000,000 in the 1300s. In Europe alone, the plague killed one-third of the population. The 1918 flu outbreak killed 680,000 of 103,000,000 people in the U.S. and about 2 percent of the population worlwide.

    Clearly, the bubonic plague was the bigger killer percentage wise.
     
  12. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Fixed
     
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