The Year in Disasters
A home burns with the sun in the background November 15, 2008 in Yorba Linda, California. Strong Santa Ana winds are fanning flames throughout Southern California, destroying hundreds of homes and causing thousands to evacuate. (Getty Images)more pics »This year, like any year was full of disasters, natural and man-made. Cranes unintentionally fell on buildings, fires engulfed acres of land, tornadoes ripped through cities and all of it was captured in photos.
Although many of these events sadly left thousands of people displaced, dead or in serious need of aid, imagery captured from these events is both devastating and amazing. So scroll through our photos and take a look at the disasters of 2008.
A crane collapsed and riped through a building in Manhattan's upper east side in May.
A 7.2 Magnitude Earthquake rocked Northern Japan in June.
A swarm of tornadoes ripped through Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi in February, leaving the areas devastated and at least 48 dead.
Fires burned throughout northern California, destroying thousands of acres of forest.
A cyclone ripped through Myanmar in May, leaving millions of people homeless and at least 100,000 dead.
A resident of Clarksville, Missouri piles sandbags as floodwaters rose in June. The Mississippi River flooded towns along its Misouri and Illinois sides.
In June California's Universal Studios ignited. The huge blaze destroyed a large portion of the backlot including several movie sets and the amusement park's "King Kong" exhibit.
OK, so maybe Amy Winehouse didn't flood a city or engulf a region in flames (yet!) but if you count up all the overdoses, the missed performanes, the drunken appearances and her overall appearance in 2008, you'd realize that she is definitely one of the year's biggest disasters.
In May the largest earthquake to hit China in 58 years reduced the region's Sichuan Province to ruble. The magnitude 8.0 quake lefte thousands missing and even more dead.
Sendai Japan Map
An 8.8 magnitude earthquake rocked Japan last night, and was centered just offshore of Sendai, Japan. See the Sendai Japan map below for the location of the epicenter. This map shows the epicenter of the Japanese earthquake with the blue area near Sendai showing the rough area affected by the ensuing tsunami. (Zimbio) The tsunami in Japan has affected a wide swath of the northeast coast of the island nation. A massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter near the city of Sendai set off a series of waves that did so far incalculable damage. The 8.8 magnitude earthquake had an epicenter near the ... Read Full Story
Photo of the tsunami reaching the San Francisco bay on 3/11/11. Photo: Steven Winter A diminished tsunami reached the San Francisco coastline just after 8 a.m. this morning. The surging waters were aftermath from the devastating 8.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan yesterday. A small tsunami hit the San Francisco coast. The National Weather Service announced that waves on Ocean Beach and under the bridge rose by approximately 1 foot. No significant damage was reported in the SF Bay. However, further south, several boats were reported damaged in Santa Cruz. A second smaller surge was also felt between 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Local ... Read Full Story
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