2004 Disasters

January 2004 Disasters

• Jan. 3, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt: A Egyptian charter Boeing 737 crashed into the Red Sea shortly after take-off, killing 148 people many of whom were French tourists going home from holidays.
• Jan. 13, Tashkent, Uzbekistan: All 37 people, including the top UN official in Uzbekistan, killed in Uzbek plane crash in dense fog while landing at Tashkent airport.
• Jan. 11–17, eastern Canada and U.S.: Record low temperatures more than 9° below normal.
• Jan. 17, Pelee Island, Ontario: Flight 126 from Pelee Island bound for Windsor Ontario crashed into Lake Erie, killing all 10 on board.
• Jan. 23, New Delhi, India: Sixty-four people, including the groom, perished in a wedding hall in southern India as people panicked in the narrow stairwell.
• Jan. 24–29, eastern Europe and Mediterranean: Snow and high winds swept across Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, and Turkey. Turkey closed many shipping channels causing shortages in natural gas and disruptions to electricity and water supplies. Three freighters sunk in the eastern Mediterranean and shipping routes were closed. The Greek-owned cargo ship Kephi sank killing 15 of the 17–member crew. High winds and a sandstorm from this same system closed shipping lanes in the Suez Canal.
• Jan. 24–27, midwest and eastern U.S. Snow, ice, and freezing cold spread across the mid-west, the northern Plains, and eastern U.S. from Atlanta, Georgia north through Pennsylvania. At least 56 deaths were blamed on the weather.

February 2004 Disasters

• Feb., Canada, U.S., and Europe: Record cold and record snowfalls in the month of February were seen: blizzard conditions in North Dakota, exceedingly heavy snowfalls in North Carolina, and heavy snowfall in the eastern Mediterranean and in western Europe.
• Feb. 1, Mecca, Saudi Arabia: At the Hajj pilgrimage, attended by more than 2 million people, a stampede during the stone-throwing ritual killed 251 pilgrims. This annual ritual by Muslims involves throwing stones at three columns of stone that symbolize the devil's temptation of Abraham. In 1990, the stampede killed 1,426 pilgrims, making it the deadliest in the history of the Muslim pilgrimage.
• Feb. 5 UT, Papua, Indonesian A 7.0 magnitude earthquake killed 31 people (Feb. 6, local time).
• Feb. 10, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates: An Iranian Fokker-50 enroute from Tish Island to Sharjah, Iran, crashed while landing, killing 43 people. There were 3 survivors in critical condition.
• Feb. 15, eastern China: 2 deadly fires claimed the lives of more than 90 people. One fire was in a department store in the city of Jilin; the other was in a temple in Zhejiang province.
• Feb. 18, Neishabour, Iran: Rail cars loaded with fertilizer, petrol, and sulphur products broke away from the locomotive, rolled 31 mi down the rails, caught fire, and subsequently exploded, killing more than 320 and devastating five villages.
• Feb. 24, northern Morocco: A 6.4 magnitude earthquake in northern Morocco near the coastal city of al Hoceima killed 628 people and left 15,000 homeless.
• Feb. 26, Sarajevo, Bosnia: The crash of a twin-engine turboprop plane in fog in the south of Bosnia, killed Macedonia's President Boris Trajkovski and eight others. Trajkovski was praised for his work in uniting his ethnically divided country after the break up of Yugoslavia.

March 2004 Disasters

• March 8, Antalaha, Madagascar : Cyclone Gafilo with winds of 160 mph and heavy rains left hundreds of thousands homeless and killed 295 people. More than 100 were on a ferry that sank off the island of Comoros.
• March 8, Baltimore, Md: Thunderstorms and strong winds gusting to 55 mph swept through Baltimore overturning a water taxi in the inner harbor, killing 5.
• March 11, Madrid, Spain: Ten bombs exploded on morning commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191, injuring more than 1,500, causing the worst terrorist attack in Europe. Although the bombings were initially blamed on the ETA, a Basque separatist group, several Moroccans and Indians with possible ties to Al-Qaeda were later arrested. The bombings came a day before the Spanish elections and may have influenced the vote. The Spanish rejected the ruling government party of Jose Maria Aznar's who supported the coalition in Iraq and elected the Socialist party under Zapatero who pledged to remove troops from Iraq unless the United Nations took control.
• March 28, Santa Catarina, Brazil: The first documented hurricane in the South Atlantic, since records began in 1966, struck Brazil, killing 3 people.

April 2004 Disasters

• April 1–5, New Mexico and Texas: Torrential rains flooded rivers, closed roads, and forced many to evacuate their homes. A foot of hail fell in Fort Stockton.
• April 4–6, Piedras Negras, Mexico: Flash flooding from torrential rains in the Rio Grande and Escondido rivers killed 37 Mexicans and forced many others to flee to shelters. Mexican President Vincente Fox declared a state of emergency.
• April 20, Utica, Ill.: More than 52 tornadoes struck Illinois and other Midwest states devastating Utica, Ill., southwest of Chicago, and killing 8 people in the basement of the Millstone Tavern.
• April 21, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A suicide car bomber who was stopped short of the former General Security building detonated the vehicle, killing at least 5 and wounding 148. This was the third successful bombing in Riyadh in the past year. Several other potential car bombs were defused this week by security forces. A pro-al-Qaeda group claimed responsibility for the attack.
• April 22, Ryongchon, North Korea: 2 trains carrying flammable liquids collided, causing a huge explosion near the Chinese border, killing 150, and injuring more than 1300. North Korea declared a state of emergency.
• April 27, Damascus, Syria: Terrorists set off explosives near the British embassy and a former UN building. At least four people were killed.
• April 29, Bogota, Colombia: A construction backhoe rolled off its trailer, fell over a ledge, and crushed a school bus, killing 22 children ages 5 to 16 and 2 adults.

May 2004 Disasters

• May 1–6, southern Calif.: Six blazes raged through 20,000 acres this week. Many were evacuated from their homes and eight buildings at the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony retreat burned to the ground.
• May 4, Athens, Greece: Three bombs exploded in Athens just 100 days before the start of the Olympics, causing increased concern about security for the games. There were no serious injuries.
• May 18, Philippines: Typhoon Nida, the fourth to hit the Philippines this year, killed more than 25 people.
• May 18–26, Dominican Republic and Haiti: Several days of torrential rains caused the Soliel River, which runs through both countries, to overflow its banks, causing floods and mudslides that destroyed entire villages. More than 3000 people were killed. The damage was particularly devastating in Haiti because of massive deforestation and poorly built homes.
• May 19, Dallas, Tex.: 2 freight trains collided derailing 20 cars, killing one person.
• May 23, Chandpur, Bangladesh: A storm on the Meghna River sank 2 ferries, killing more than 200 people.
• May 23, Paris, France: A section of a new terminal at Charles DeGaulle airport collapsed killing 4 people and injuring 3. The terminal, built a year ago at the cost of $900 million dollars, was an unconventional design of glass and concrete tubes. Preliminary reports blame problems with the concrete.
• May 28, Iran: A 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Northern Iran killed 35 people.
• May 29–30; midwest, U.S.: Over the Memorial Day weekend tornadoes, high winds, and heavy thunderstorms from Louisiana to the Great Lakes killed 10 people, closed roads, caused power outages, flooded towns, and destroyed homes and buildings.

June 2004 Disasters

• June 29–30, Philippines: Typhoon Mindulle struck the Philippines, killing 30.
• June 29, Sierra Leone: A United Nations helicopter carrying peacekeepers and others crashed, killing all 24 on board.

July 2004 Disasters

• June, July, and Aug., South Asia: The worst monsoon flooding in fifteen years in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh left up to 5 million homeless, killed more than 1800 people with at least 600 in Bangladesh, and destroyed much of the infrastructure. Many people died from drinking polluted water. Hundreds of people in South Asia die every year from the flooding and landslides caused by the monsoon rains.
• July-Aug., Alaska: Wildfires in Alaska this summer have burned more than 5 million acres, the worst season on record.
• July 1–3, Taiwan: Flooding from tropical storm Mindulle and the heavy rains that followed killed at least 27 people and left 13 missing. Agricultural losses were very heavy.
• July 5–11, Romania: A heat wave killed 22 people in Romania and left many more sweltering in southern Europe.
• July 12, Zhongba County, Tibet A powerful earthquake hit Tibet in the Gangdise mountains. Damages and casualties in this remote region are not yet known.
• July 12, Burlington County, N.J.: Up to 13 inches of rains caused dams to break and severe flooding conditions in Burlington and Camden Country. More than 750 people were evacuated.
• July 16, Southern India: The thatched roof of a private elementary school caught fire in southern India, killing 94 children. There were numerous safety hazards and many children who died were trapped in a room with one exit.
• July 16–18: New Zealand: Floods and more than 30 earthquakes killed 2 people and led to the evacuation of 1500 people.
• July 22, Sakarya province, Turkey: A high-speed train from Istanbul to Ankara derailed, killing 37 people.

August 2004 Disasters

• Aug. 1, Asunción, Paraguay: Fire, caused by a gas leak, swept through a supermarket in a three-story shopping center, killing at least 400 people, many of whom were trapped inside because security guards locked the doors to prevent theft. There are still 130 people missing.
• Aug. 9, Mihama, Japan: Non-radioactive steam leaked from a nuclear power plant north of Kyoto, killing 4 workers and severely burning 7 others.
• Aug. 11, Havana , Cuba: Charley, a category 2 hurricane, caused damage exceeding $1 billion.
• Aug. 12, Zhejiang province, China: Typhoon Rananim, the most powerful storm of the season, killed 164 people and caused extensive damage.
• Aug. 12, Fla.: Tropical storm Bonnie made landfall in the Florida panhandle.
• Aug. 13, Punta Gorda, Fla.: Charley, a category 4 hurricane, struck the southwest coast of Florida with 145 mile per hour winds, killing 31 people in storm-related deaths in the U.S., 4 in Cuba, and 1 in Jamaica. Damages estimated at $7.4. More than 2 million people were evacuated and ten of thousands were left homeless as thousands of buildings were damaged and mobile home parks were demolished. It was the worst hurricane in Florida since Andrew in 1992. Electricity remained out for more than 350,000 customers up to five days after the storm.
• Aug. 22, Carabobo, Venezuela : A Venezuelan air force plane crashed in bad weather, killing all 25 aboard.
• Aug. 24, Moscow, Russia: 2 Russian planes, a Siberia Airlines Tu-154 and a Volga-Avia Express Tupolev 134 aircraft, both departing from Moscow's airport, crashed within minutes of each other, killing a total of 89 people. Investigators discovered evidence of explosives on both flights.
• Aug. 24–25, Taiwan and China: Typhoon Aere swept through Taipei, Taiwan, causing flooding and landslides that killed 39 people in Taiwan and 12 in the Philippines. Aere moved on to China where nearly 1 million people were evacuated.
• Aug. 29, southwestern Japan: Typhoon Chaba, with record high winds, killed at least 9 people and caused flooding. Earlier in the month, Typhoon Megi killed 9 in Japan.
• Aug. 29–31, S.C., N.C., and Va.: Tropical storm Gaston made landfall in McClellanville, South Carolina and then moved through North Carolina and Virginia. Heavy rains dumped up to 14 inches on Richmond, Va. and the surrounding area, devastating the historic downtown area. The death toll from Gaston; 8 people.

September 2004 Disasters

• Sept. 5–8, east and west coast, Fla.: Hurricane Frances, downgraded from a Category 4 to a Category 2 storm, made landfall on the Atlantic coast of Florida, near Stuart, on Sept. 5, moved across the state dropping up to 13 inches of rain. Frances made a second Florida landfall, as a tropical storm, at St. Marks on the Panhandle on Sept. 8. More than 2.8 million people were evacuated and damages estimated at $9 billion. The storm killed at least 38 people.
• Sept. 3–8, Sichuan province, China: Five days of downpours have left 172 people dead. The flooding led to concerns about damage to the Three Gorges Dam.
• Sept. 7–8, Japan: Typhoon Songda, a powerful typhoon, killed 31 people in Japan and on freighters at sea. Songda was the seventh typhoon to hit Japan this season; there have been nineteen Pacific typhoons this year.
• Sept. 8, Kure, Turkey: Fire swept through a Turkish copper mine, trapping and killing 19 miners.
• Sept. 8, Caribbean: Hurricane Ivan, a Category 4 hurricane, ripped through Grenada, damaging an estimated 90 percent of the homes on the island. There was wide-spread destruction in St. George's, to the main hospital, the emergency control center, and the prison. Ivan, continued north, hitting Jamaica and battering the Caymans. Both islands experienced storm surges, major flooding, and destroyed homes. A total of 66 people died.
• Sept. 16, Ala., Fla., La., and Miss.: Hurricane Ivan, made landfall at Gulf Shores, Alabama, as a Category 3 hurricane, causing severe flooding and power outages from Louisiana to Florida, with some of the worst damage in the Florida Panhandle, where the storm spawned deadly hurricanes. The death toll is at least 52 and damages are estimated at $12 billion. Heavy rainfall and tornadoes spread into N.C. and Tenn.
• Sept. 18, Gonaives, Haiti: Tropical storm Jeanne brought torrential rains and flooding to Haiti, killing more than 2,500 with more than 1,000 still missing. The storm killed 31 more in the Caribbean.
• Sept. 25, Atlantic Coast, Fla.: Hurricane Jeanne, the fourth hurricane to hit Florida in 6 weeks, made landfall at almost the same area as Frances, three weeks earlier. Jeanne brought strong winds and more flooding to an already saturated state and then continued north through Georgia and South Carolina with heavy rains, killing 28. Total damages for the 4 hurricanes estimated to be more than for Andrew in 1992.
• Sept. 28, Parkfield, Calif.: An earthquake registering 6.0 shook central California. No injuries or deaths.

October 2004 Disasters

• Oct. 6, Taba, Egypt: Three car bombs targeting Israeli tourists exploded at Egyptian resort areas on the Sinai peninsula. The largest explosion at the Hilton Taba hotel killed at least 34. The other 2 bombs exploded in Ras Shitan, a camp area 35 miles to the south of Taba.
• Oct. 8, Paris, France: A bomb exploded outside the Indonesian Embassy in Paris, wounding 10. No person nor organization has claimed responsibility.
• Oct. 19, Kirksville, Mo.: A commuter plane, Corporate Airlines Flight 5966, crashed 4 mi outside of the Kirksville Regional Airport, killing 13 of the 15 on board.
• Oct. 20, Japan: Typhoon Tokage, the deadliest typhoon to hit Japan in more than 2 decades, killed at least 80 people as heavy rains flooded tens of thousands of houses and triggered numerous landslides. The typhoon produced a record (since 1970) 80 ft (24 m) high wave, eight-stories high. A record ten typhoons have struck Japan this season, killing more than 100 people, and causing damages estimated at $6.7 billion.
• Oct. 20, Henan province, China: A coal mine blast in central China killed 148. Insufficient ventilation led to a build up of gas and then sparks from mine machinery ignited the fire.
• Oct. 23, Niigata, Japan: A 6.6 magnitude earthquake, the deadliest in more than a decade, hit Japan, killing 40, injuring more than 3,100, and destroying more than 6,000 buildings. A series of quakes triggered more than 1,000 landslides, derailed a high-speed train, disrupted power, and damaged many roads in the area. Communications to the area were cut off leaving many without food and supplies. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated to shelters.
• Oct. 24, Martinsville, N.C.: A private plane, belonging to the Rick Hendrick NASCAR team, crashed in heavy fog in North Carolina killing 10, including his son, brother, and other close relatives of Hendrick and several members of the organization.

October 2004 Disasters

• Oct. 6, Taba, Egypt: Three car bombs targeting Israeli tourists exploded at Egyptian resort areas on the Sinai peninsula. The largest explosion at the Hilton Taba hotel killed at least 34. The other 2 bombs exploded in Ras Shitan, a camp area 35 miles to the south of Taba.
• Oct. 8, Paris, France: A bomb exploded outside the Indonesian Embassy in Paris, wounding 10. No person nor organization has claimed responsibility.
• Oct. 19, Kirksville, Mo.: A commuter plane, Corporate Airlines Flight 5966, crashed 4 mi outside of the Kirksville Regional Airport, killing 13 of the 15 on board.
• Oct. 20, Japan: Typhoon Tokage, the deadliest typhoon to hit Japan in more than 2 decades, killed at least 80 people as heavy rains flooded tens of thousands of houses and triggered numerous landslides. The typhoon produced a record (since 1970) 80 ft (24 m) high wave, eight-stories high. A record ten typhoons have struck Japan this season, killing more than 100 people, and causing damages estimated at $6.7 billion.
• Oct. 20, Henan province, China: A coal mine blast in central China killed 148. Insufficient ventilation led to a build up of gas and then sparks from mine machinery ignited the fire.
• Oct. 23, Niigata, Japan: A 6.6 magnitude earthquake, the deadliest in more than a decade, hit Japan, killing 40, injuring more than 3,100, and destroying more than 6,000 buildings. A series of quakes triggered more than 1,000 landslides, derailed a high-speed train, disrupted power, and damaged many roads in the area. Communications to the area were cut off leaving many without food and supplies. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated to shelters.
• Oct. 24, Martinsville, N.C.: A private plane, belonging to the Rick Hendrick NASCAR team, crashed in heavy fog in North Carolina killing 10, including his son, brother, and other close relatives of Hendrick and several members of the organization.

November 2004 Disasters

• Nov. 7, southern Philippines: Southern Philippines hit by tropical storm Lingling experienced flash floods and landslides that killed at least 115.
• Nov. 11, Kepulauan Alor, Indonesia: A 7.5 earthquake, the largest in 2004, killed 28 people.
• Nov. 20, San Jose, Costa Rica: A 6.4 earthquake, 30 mi south-southwest of San Jose, killed 8 people, several from heart attacks.
• Nov. 21, Baotou, China: China Eastern Airlines commuter plane, a Bombardier CRJ-200, exploded and plunged into a frozen lake just after take-off from Baotou, a city in northern China. All 53 people on board and 1 on the ground were killed
• Nov. 20–21, El Campo, Tex.: Fifteen inches of rain flooded El Campo and parts of southeast Texas. More than 250 were evacuated.
• Nov. 22–26, Philippines and Vietnam: Tropical storm Muifa sank several boats and pounded the Philippine coast, killing at least 60. In Vietnam, torrential rains from Muifa killed at least 45 people, flooded more than 170,000 houses, and blocked roads, hampering rescue efforts and the delivery of relief supplies. Flooding also threatened the World Heritage site of Hoi An in Vietnam.
• Nov. 27, Shaanxi province, China: A gas explosion at Chenjiashan Coal Mine in northwest China killed 166 miners. In October another blast killed 148. More than 4,500 miners died in China this year.
• Nov. 26, West Papua province, Indonesia: A magnitude 7.1 earthquake destroyed 328 buildings and killed at least 32.
• Nov. 27–28, Sierra Nevadas and Rocky Mountains: Holiday storms dumped up to three feet of snow in California, New Mexico, Colorado, and Nebraska bringing holiday travel to a halt.
• Nov. 29, eastern coast and Quezon province, Philippines: Flash floods and landslides from Typhoon Winnie killed more than 500 people and hundreds are still missing. Because of the many landslides, many areas were inaccessible to rescue and clean-up crews. The landslides were caused by the deforestation from both illegal and legal logging.
• Nov. 30, Solo, Indonesia: A Lion Air MD-82 plane skidded off the runway in Solo, Indonesia, killing 31 and injuring at least 62.

December 2004 Disasters

• Dec. 2–3, eastern coast and Luzon, Philippines: Typhoon Nanmadol, a major storm, hit an area already devastated by 2 previous torrential storms that struck the northeastern region of the Philippines in the last 2 weeks. More than 1800 people died in storm related deaths from the three storms since November. It was the worst storm season for the Philippines in 13 years. Much of the devastation is due to massive landslides resulting from the deforestation by both legal and illegal logging. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has canceled all logging permits and security forces are cracking down on illegal logging.
• Dec. 6, Jeddah , Saudi Arabia: Five Al-Qaeda militants attacked the U.S. consulate leaving a total of nine dead (five consulate employees and four attackers), none were American. The militants drove up to the consulate gates, then jumped out and opened fire with machine guns and hand grenades, and entered the compound. Saudi security forces stopped the raid and secured the compound within 30 minutes. The attackers claimed to be members of the Falluja Brigades. Attacks in Saudi Arabia have killed more then 75 since May 20, 2003.
• Dec. 12, Manila, Philippines: A bomb exploded in a crowded market of Christmas stalls, killing 15 people and wounding 65.
• Dec. 19, Mercer County, Penn.: Heavy snows and a whiteout caused a pileup of 70 cars on Interstate 80 in western Pennsylvania. No one was killed.
• Dec. 26, Sumatra, Indonesia: A 9.0 magnitude earthquake—the largest earthquake since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake, —caused a powerful tsunami in the Indian Ocean that hit 12 countries; Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Somalia, Myanmar, Maldives, Malaysia, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Kenya, and the Seychelles. The earthquake's epicenter was off the west coast of the Indonesian Island of Sumatra. By Feb. 2005, the death toll was more than 225,000 with thousands still missing. Millions have lost their homes. Hardest hit were Indonesia (particularly the province of Aceh) with more than 166,000 deaths, Sri Lanka with more than 30,000 deaths, India, and Thailand.
• Dec. 30, Buenos Aires, Argentina: A flare started a fire at an overcrowded nightclub, the Republica de la Cromagnon disco, killing 175 people and injuring more than 700. Four of the escape routes were locked.