The 2004 ocean earthquake and tsunami was as bad a recent natural disaster as there has been in terms of recorded fatalities.  This was truly a world disaster; deaths were recorded as far away as South Africa, 5,000 miles from the epicenter of the event.  The tsunami was caused by a huge ocean earthquake, over 9 on the Richter scale, which in turn caused a massive ocean wave to form. 

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Chernobyl was the worst nuclear disaster in history.  The Chernobyl nuclear plant was situated the north of what is now Ukraine, and built to a rather archaic (and now discredited) design.  In April 1986, a test was being run on the nuclear reactor, which required it to be shut down for a short time. 

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The Dust Bowl was a horrific weather disaster: a weather storm that occurred during the ‘30s.  The Dust Bowl created a tremendous amount of storm damage: people lost their lives and some lost their homes during the Dust Bowl.  The product of poor farming practices, the Dust Bowl weather disaster wiped out crops, resulted in a vast amount of unnatural land erosion, and produced what is referred to as black blizzards – storms of dust that blew across the country. 

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In light of the multitude of recent natural disaster incidents, many people have looked back in history to see the results of other major historical disasters.  From the Hindenburg disaster to a weather disaster or world disaster, there is much about the recovery and renovation that comes after one of these events that enlivens the human spirit.  One such event in the not-so-distant past was the Great Chicago Fire.

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