By Paul Craig Roberts

April 19, 2013

(LifeSiteNews) – A recent National Weather Service report predicted that if the western United States were to witness another “cataclysm” type earthquake, as some observers have predicted, the damage could be substantial enough to destroy homes and damage tens of thousands of families and businesses.

The “big-3″ hurricanes of 2004 were the deadliest single events on record with the deaths of many thousands of people being recorded.

The catastrophic “Big 3″ of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike were the worst storm records on record to that date, accounting for the deaths of up to 11,000 persons and businesses. Both Hurricanes Thomas and Karl were also major disasters of great human damage.

Since 1999, several major earthquakes have devastated the Western United States. In the late 1990’s, for example, a tremor of magnitude 7.6 was felt as far south as South Dakota and Oklahoma City, and near New York City. That quake triggered a tsunami wave that killed many people, including the head of the United States Congress, Thomas Jefferson. The following year, during a particularly intense season, an 8.7 magnitude earthquake devastated eastern Canada.

NWS, in conjunction with NOAA, recently released the first annual, updated earthquake hazard maps that show just how dangerous a global “catastrophe” like the “Big 3″ of hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Ike were compared to the relatively safe and easy days leading up to them.

The maps include the total 바카라 룰number of victims per stat평택출장마사지 평택출장안마e, the number of people killed and the total number of buildings dama코인 카지노ged, including both residential and commercial buildings.

Of the 33,731 deaths recorded in the United States during the 2012 calendar year, about 5 percent were caused by natural disasters. In comparison, during the same period, in 2001, the U.S. experienced 9,078 dead, 1,728 killed and 3,099 more damaged.

Of the 19,895 deaths recorded in 2012, 1,743 (or 12 percent) of the total number of fatalities were due to natural disasters.

The “Big 3″ of hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Ike produced a total of 14,841 deaths, an average of roughly seven deaths every minute. Since Katrina, the three powerful hurricanes are now all at sea; in August 2013, a massive tropical depression devastated Puerto Rico and is expected to strengthen into a devastating hurricane of destructive force if not stopped by the swif