Weather disasters have played a significant part in world history. Some events have claimed thousands of lives and left thousands homeless.
Monsoons in India wiped out thousands and thousands of lives over the years. We all know first hand about tornadoes and hurricanes. The name, Katrina, is a household word. The name is burned in our memory forever. There will probably never be an exact count of how many people lost their lives but the death toll is listed at 1,800.
The Great Galveston Hurricane in September, 1900 is credited with 6,000 to possibly 8,000 deaths and most of those drowned. Numerous people were washed out to sea never to be heard from again.
2,500 people were killed by the Great Lake Okeechobee Hurricane in South Florida in 1928.
A double tornado disaster here in the Southeast in 1936. On April 5, Tupelo, Miss., was devastated with 317 persons killed. Next morning, April 6, a powerful tornado ripped through Gainesville, Ga., and 203 persons died. So that was 419 deaths in a span of 12 hours or so. No radar in those days, but it is likely that the same storm system produced both.
The Great Lakes can generate some major storms.
Today is the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior in 1975. There were 29 men that went down with the ship, which was the entire crew.
The Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin on her last voyage on November 9, 1975 with a cargo of over 26,000 tons. Traveling down Lake Superior along with Arthur M. Anderson, part of the U. S. Steel’s Great Lakes fleet.
The Fitzgerald encountered heavy weather around nightfall on November 10. She suddenly floundered 17 miles from the entrance to Whitefish Bay. Captain McSorley of the Fitzgerald, indicated he was in trouble and taking on water. She had lost her radar. The captain said it was the worst storm he had ever seen.
The ship went down and it lies broken in two sections in 530 feet of water.
The U.S. Coast Guard surveyed the wreckage in 1976. The two sections lie within 170 feet of each other.
The Coast Guard also reported on August 2, 1977 that there were faulty hatch covers, lack of watertight cargo hold bulkheads and damage caused by an undetermined source.
