Deadliest structural failures - infographic

[Frank S]

I think the old gymnasium at the school I attended might have qualified. A tornado went through a town not far from our town back in the 1920s several kid were killed at that town's school. So as I am told in 1930 when it was decided to build a gym for our school it was to be built to withstand about anything 2 separate basements 1 under the locker rooms and grand stands the other under the area where the stage was to be, with 2 connecting tunnels the Gym walls were 24" thick reinforced concrete with a 2 layered brick outer covering the roof beams were 12x30" wood bridge beams. it was completed in 1932 by the WPA. Nothing back then cold have done much more than superficial damage, but I would think that many of the modern weapon's systems could do significant damage

[hemmjo]

I found it interesting the United States seems to have had many more than anywhere else. I would have guessed south or east Asia, given the high population density and frequent seismic and large weather events.

I am not saying the US is not without some issues, but lets keep things in perspective.

There are 30 events listed. The US has 9 of them. Nine is not many times more than 21. It is in fact less than 1/2 of the total listed. Also of note in the graphic are huge areas where they are no building failures listed. If you examine the graphic you will notice those areas with no failures are the huge sections of the Earth where they are very few large structures. In some of those areas there are no structures at all. In the other areas, there is very little reporting done. Is it significant that there are none reported in China or Russia? I believe it is.

In addition, many deadly incidents happen where hundreds, maybe 1,000's, of smaller structures were destroyed in one event, rather then one large structure. For example, #6 on the list might be the level 8.0 earthquake that occurred on Hispanola in 1946. This event killed over 1700 in Haiti and the Dominican Republic which share the island. Number 1 on the list might be the 2010, 7.0 earthquake near Port-au-Prince, the densely populated capital city, that may have killed 100,000 to 300,000 people. (Numbers are difficult to verify when there are few birth/death records, and many bodies were just scooped up in the rubble and discarded.) The building standards are all but non-existent. Those standards that may exist are not enforced anyway.

I am sure there are other large events that are little known.

[schuylergrace]

I am not saying the US is not without some issues, but lets keep things in perspective. There are 30 events listed. The US has 9 of them. Nine is not many times more than 21. It is in fact less than 1/2 of the total listed.

I wasn't saying we had more than everyone else combined, and I figured different reporting standards might be part of the difference. I just assumed there'd be many more large, single structure events somewhere like Hong Kong or Mumbai or Shanghai, where earthquakes are common and population density is higher. And the small disasters add up to many more lives impacted than do the big ones, no matter whether you are talking about structures failing or car wrecks or plane crashes. There are lots of fatal GA plane crashes every year, for example, but when one jumbo jet goes down, that's news.