Natural Disasters of the Awesome80s

By Patrick Mondout

Major natural disasters of the Awesome80s are shown below with the number of fatalities shown in parenthesis.

Volcanoes

May 18, 1980, Mt. St. Helens in Southwestern Washington (57)
November 13, 1985, Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia (23,000)

Floods

Thanks to the USGS, we also have detailed listings of U.S. floods by year: 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1970s.

February 13-22 1980, in Arizona and Southern California (26)
April 1981, in Northern China (550)
July 1981, in Sichuan, China (1,300+)
January 23 1982, near Lima, Peru (600)
May 12 1982, in Guangdong, China (430)
September 17-21 1982, in El Salvador, Guatemala (1,300+)
February-March 1983, in coastal California (13)
April 6-12 1983, in Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Mississippi (15)
June 1983, Monsoon rains in India (900)
May 27 1984, in Tulsa, Oklahoma (13)
August-September 1984, in South Korea (200+)
July 19 1985, a dam burst in Northern Italy (361)
August-September 1987, in Northern Bangladesh (1,000+)
September 1988, in Northern India (1,000+)

Tornados

June 3, 1980 in Grand Island, Nebraska (4)
March 2-4 1982 in the South & Midwest (17)
May 29 1982 in Southern Illinois (10)
May 18-22 1983 in Texas (12)
March 28 1984 in North and South Carolina (57)
April 21-22 1984 in Mississippi (15)
April 26 1984 in Oklahoma and Minnesota (17)
May 31 1985 in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Ontario (75)
May 22 1987 in Saragosa, Texas (29)
November 15 1989 in Huntsville, Alabama (18)
November 16 1989 in Newburgh, New York (9)

Hurricanes, Cyclones, Typhoons, Blizzards & Other Storms

August 4-11 1980, Hurricane Allen in the Caribbean and Texas (272)
November 25 1981, Typhoon Irma in the Philippines(176)
August 18 1983, Hurricane Alicia in southern Texas (17)
September 2 1984, Typhoon Ike in the Philippines (1,363)
May 25 1985, Cyclone in Bangladesh (10,000+)
September 2, 1985 Hurricane Elena (4)
October 26 - November 6 1985, Hurricane Juan in the Southeast U.S. (97)
November 16-23, 1985, Hurricane Kate in Southeast U.S. (2)
November 25 1987, Typhoon Nina in the Philippines (650)
September 10-17 1988, Hurricane Gilbert in the Caribbean & Gulf of Mexico (260)
September 16-22 1989, Hurricane Hugo in the Caribbean & Southeast U.S. (504)

Source: NOAA.