1906: San Francisco Earthquake Fire
When a magnitude 7.8 quake rumbled from the San Andreas Fault to the working-class center of town, continuous explosions formed a lurid tower of smoke throughout the city. But the first of our 10 Worst Disasters of the Century teaches the lessons of reconstruction—and set the foundation for a century of earthquake research to come.

1910: The Big Burn
A rainless summer, bizarre winds and sudden lightning merged hundreds of fires into a great inferno, leaving firefighters to fend off the Big Blowup with buckets of water and their bare hands. By the time the second of our 10 Worst Disasters of the Century was put out, the wildfires had claimed 85 lives, but also sparked a debate that burns to this day.

1918: Spanish Flu Pandemic
More deadly than the World War unfolding alongside it, the virus wiped out America’s young and healthy and, by the time our troops had carried it across the pond, took out 50 million people worldwide. The good news from the third of our 10 Worst Disasters of the Century? We’ve finally decoded it, and it’s still teaching scientists how to prepare.

1925: Tri-State Tornado

1938: The New England Hurricane

1964: The Great Alaskan Earthquake

1974: Super Tornado Outbreak

1980: Mount St. Helens Eruption

1993: Storm of the Century

2005: Hurricane Katrina

This list has been severely abridged. To read the full list and full descriptions, view the original post at it’s source:

The 10 Worst Disasters Of The Last 101 Years (Popular Mechanics)