In the past decade this world has been through tragedies that most people wouldn't even think were possible. We have been through hurricanes, earthquakes, attacks, tsunamis, and so much more. On the morning of September 11, 2001 terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airlines. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the buildings. Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C. There were no survivors from any of the flights.
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest hurricane, as well as one of the deadliest, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall. Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005 and crossed southern Florida as a moderate category 1 hurricane causing some deaths and flooding there before strengthening rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico. Most sever loss of life occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana which flooded as the levee system failed, in many cases hours after the storm had moved inland. Eventually 80% of the city and large tracts of neighboring parishes became flooded, and the flood waters lingered for weeks.
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea mega thrust earthquake that occurred on December 26, 2004, with an epicenter off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.
The earthquake was caused by subduction and triggered a series of devastating tsunamis along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing nearly 230,000 people in fourteen countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 meters (100 feet) high. With a magnitudeof between 9.1 and 9.3, it is the second largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph.
The 2009 flu pandemic is a global outbreak of a new strain of H1N1 influenza virus, often referred to as "swine flu". Although the virus, first detected in April 2009, contains a combination of genes from swine influenza, avian flu, and human influenza viruses, it cannot be spread by eating pork or pork products. The outbreak began in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, with evidence that there had been an ongoing epidemic for months before it was officially recognized as such. The Mexican government closed most of Mexico City's public and private facilities in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus.
The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 M earthquake, with an epicenter near the town of Leogane, approximately 25 km (16 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred on Tuesday, January 12, 2010. By January 24, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater had been recorded. An estimated three million people were affected by the quake;the Haitian Government reported that an estimated 230,000 people had died, 300,000 had been injured and 1,000,000 made homeless.They also estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged.
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