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From 1950 to 2026, Cyclone Bhola, which hit Bangladesh in 1970, was the deadliest natural disaster in the world. The exact death toll is impossible to calculate, but it is estimated that over 300,000 lives were lost as a result of the cyclone. The Tangshan earthquake in China in 1976 is estimated to have caused the second-highest number of fatalities. 

The Haiti earthquake

The fifth-deadliest natural disaster during this period was the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. However, death tolls vary between 100,000 and 316,000, meaning that some estimates make it the deadliest natural disaster in the world since 1950, and the deadliest earthquake since 1900. Sixty percent of the country’s hospitals and eighty percent of the country’s schools were destroyed. It was the worst earthquake to hit the Caribbean in 200 years, with a magnitude of 7.0 at its epicenter, only 25 kilometers away from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Poor construction practices were to blame for many of the deaths; Haiti’s buildings were not earthquake-resistant and were not built according to building code due to a lack of licensed building professionals. High population density was also to blame for the high number of fatalities. One fourth of the country’s inhabitants lived in the Port-au-Prince area, meaning half of the country’s population was directly affected by the earthquake. 

Increasing extreme weather

As global warming continues to accelerate climate change, it is estimated that natural catastrophes such as cyclones, rainfalls, landslides, and heat waves will intensify in the coming years and decades. For instance, the economic losses caused by natural disasters worldwide have increased since 2015. Moreover, it is expected that countries in the Global South will be affected the most by climate change in the coming years, and many of these are already feeling the impact of climate change.