| The year 2005 could be portrayed as a year of | | | | earthquake in Indonesia (1000 dead), or floods in |
| unparalleled natural disasters. The Boxer Day | | | | China (567 dead). In India 1000 people died when |
| tsunami of Dec. 26, 2004, in Southeast Asia, | | | | record rainfalls triggered major floods and |
| which killed more than 231,000, set the scene for | | | | landslides. On August 29, Hurricane Katrina hit the |
| the year 2005. The massive Indian Ocean quake, | | | | Louisiana and Mississippi coasts killing 1,228 people. |
| measuring 9.15 on the Richter scale, sent waves | | | | Later in October, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake |
| as high as 30 meters and as far away as 1000 | | | | struck northeast of Islamabad, Pakistan, and in |
| miles in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and east | | | | Indian Kashmir, killing 74,564. Following this, |
| Africa. The scene looked like something out of a | | | | Hurricane Stan struck Guatemala and El Salvador |
| Hollywood disaster film. Entire coastlines were | | | | killing about 1,000. These seven natural disasters |
| altered as the seemingly never-ending surging tide | | | | of 2005 alone took the lives of nearly 80,000 |
| pulverized everything in its path. An avalanche of | | | | people, not including the Southeast Asia tsunami |
| donations immediately poured forth from the | | | | of December 26, 2004.Tropical storm Zeta, |
| international community to the affected area, so | | | | named from the sixth letter of the Greek |
| much so, that at one point one charity | | | | alphabet, is now the 27th storm to form in the |
| organization requested that the people stop | | | | Atlantic this year. According to Chris Vaccaro of |
| sending cash.The deadly tsunami quickly dwarfed | | | | the National Oceanic and Atmospheric |
| other routine disasters that were not reported in | | | | Administration, this is the first time in 154 years |
| the front pages of the media, such as, | | | | that the 21 recorded storms in 1933 have been |
| earthquakes in Iran (612 dead), an 8.7 magnitude | | | | exceeded. |