List of disasters in the United States by death toll

List of United States disasters by death toll is a list of notable disasters which occurred in the United States or involved U.S. citizens, in a definable incident.

Due to inflation, the monetary damage estimates are not comparable. Unless otherwise noted, the year given is the year in which the currency's valuation was calculated.

This list is not comprehensive in general, and epidemics are not included.

Fatality figure may include wounded

Year	Type	Fatalities	Damage (US$)	Articl	Location	Comments
1900	Cyclone	6,000-12,000		Galveston Hurricane of 1900	Texas	Fatalities estimated
1906	Earthquake and Fire (urban conflagration)	3,000-6,000		1906 San Francisco Earthquake	California	Conflagration followed quake; fatalities estimated
2001	Terrorism	2,992		September 11, 2001 attacks	New York City, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, U.S. airspace
1928	Cyclone	2,500-4,078	$800,000,000 (2005)	1928 Okeechobee Hurricane	Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Florida	Fatalities estimated
1960	Tsunami	2,290-6,000	$3,500,000,000 (2005)	Great Chilean Earthquake	Hawaii, Alaska	Worldwide statistics; 61 killed in Hilo, Hawaii, $500,000 in U.S. property damage
1889	Accident - Dam burst	2,209		Johnstown Flood	Pennsylvania	Much rain, deforestation; dam broke
1893	Cyclone	2,000		1893 Cheniere Caminada Hurricane	Louisiana	Fatalities estimated
2005	Cyclone	1,836	$84,000,000,000 (2006)	Hurricane Katrina	Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama
1865	Accident - Shipwreck	1,700		Sultana (steamboat)	Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee	Steamboat sank due to boiler explosion; fatalities estimated
1980	Heat wave	1,700		1980 United States heat wave	Central and southern states	Official death toll, may have been higher
1912	Accident - Shipwreck	1,490-1,522		RMS Titanic	Atlantic Ocean	Bound for New York City
1871	Fire (rural)	1,200-2,500		Peshtigo Fire	Peshtigo, Wisconsin	Fatalities estimated; most deaths in single fire in U.S. history
1904	Accident - Shipwreck	1,021		General Slocum	East River near New York City	Steamship sank due to fire on board
1893	Cyclone	1,000-2,000		1893 Sea Islands Hurricane	Georgia, South Carolina	Fatalities estimated
1915	Accident - Shipwreck	845		S.S. Eastland	Chicago, Illinois
1995	Heat wave	739		Chicago Heat Wave of 1995	Chicago, Illinois
1925	Tornado	695-727	$1,650,000,000 (2005)	Tri-State Tornado	Missouri, Illinois and Indiana (Kentucky, Tennessee)	Lower number for single 3-state tornado; higher for 5-state outbreak
1903	Fire (building)	602		Iroquois Theater Fire	Chicago, Illinois
1919	Cyclone	600		1919 Florida Keys Hurricane	Florida, Texas
1928	Accident - Dam failure	600		St. Francis Dam	Santa Clarita, California (Greater Los Angeles area)
1938	Cyclone	600		Great New England Hurricane
1977	Accident - Aircraft	583		Tenerife disaster	Canary Islands, Spain	Pan Am jet from New York involved
1947	Accident - Explosion	581		Texas City Disaster	Texas City, Texas	Ammonium nitrate onboard ship
1942	Fire (building)	492		Cocoanut Grove fire		Nightclub
1918	Fire (rural)	453	$7,300,000	1918 Cloquet Fire	Minnesota
1913	Flood	428		1913 Statewide Flood	Ohio
1935	Cyclone	423		Labor Day Hurricane of 1935	Florida
1860	Accident - Shipwreck	400		Lady Elgin (steamship)	Chicago, Illinois
1888	Blizzard	400		Great Blizzard of 1888	Northeast	Fatalities estimated
1894	Fire (rural)	400		Great Hinckley Fire	Hinckley, Minnesota and vicinity
1937	Flood	385	$500,000,000	Ohio River flood of 1937	Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois
1907	Accident - Coal mine	362		Monongah Mining disaster	Monongah, West Virginia
1950	Blizzard	353	$66,700,000 (1950)	Great Appalachian Storm of November 1950	Eastern states
1944	Accident - Explosion	320		Port Chicago disaster	Port Chicago, California (San Francisco Bay Area)	WWII ammunition ignited
1974	Tornado	315		Super Outbreak	Ontario, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and New York	148 tornadoes
1865	Accident - Explosion	300		Mobile magazine explosion	Mobile, Alabama	Civil War ammunition
1937	Accident - Explosion	296-319	$13,000,000 (2003)	New London School explosion	New London, Texas	Gas leak
1881	Fire (rural)	282	$2,347,000	Thumb Fire	Michigan
1898	Explosion	274		The Maine	Havana, Cuba
1979	Accident - Aircraft	273		American Airlines Flight 191	Chicago, Illinois
1965	Tornado	271		Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak	Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana	78 tornadoes
1999	Heat wave	271			Midwest and Northeast
1988	Terrorism	270		Pan Am Flight 103	Lockerbie, Scotland
2001	Accident - Aircraft	265		American Airlines Flight 587	Queens, New York
1913	Accident - Coal mine	263			Dawson, New Mexico
1909	Accident - Coal mine	259		Cherry Mine Disaster	Cherry, Illinois
1937	Accident - Coal mine	257			Grundy, Virginia
1969	Cyclone	256		Hurricane Camille	Mississippi, Alabama and Virginia
1896	Tornado	255-400	$2,900,000,000 (1997)	St. Louis-East St. Louis Tornado	Missouri
1913	Blizzard	250		Great Lakes Storm of 1913		Fatalities estimated
1913	Storm	250	$5,000,000 (1913)	Great Lakes Storm of 1913	Great Lakes area	Financial impact for lost vessels and cargo only
1927	Flood	246	$400,000,000	Great Mississippi Flood of 1927	Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee
1972	Flood	238	$160,000,000 (1972) $664,000,000 (2002)	Rapid City Flood	Rapid City, South Dakota	Average rainfall over area of 60 mi² measured at 10-15 inches (380 mm), over 6 hours in middle of night June 9-10, 1972.
1996	Accident - Aircraft	230		TWA Flight 800	Atlantic Ocean near Long Island, New York
1871	Fire (urban conflagration)	200-300		Great Chicago fire	Chicago, Illinois	Fatalities estimated; 125 bodies recovered
1900	Accident - Coal mine	200		Scofield mine disaster	Scofield, Utah
1898	Accident - Shipwreck	192		The Portland	Gloucester, Massachusetts
1995	Terrorism	168		Oklahoma City bombing	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
1977	Fire (building)	165		Beverly Hills Supper Club fire	Southgate, Kentucky near Cincinnati, OH
1946	Tsunami and Earthquake	165		Aleutian Island earthquake	Alaska and Hawaii
1911	Fire (building)	148		Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire	New York City
1976	Flood	145		Big Thompson Canyon Flood of 1976	Colorado
1985	Accident - Aircraft	135		Delta Air Lines Flight 191	Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Texas
1960	Accident - Aircraft	134		1960 New York air disaster	New York City
1944	Accident - Explosion	130	$7,000,000- $15,000,000	Cleveland East Ohio Gas Explosion	Cleveland, Ohio
1972	Accident - Dam burst	125		Buffalo Creek Flood	Logan County, West Virginia
2004	Cyclone	124	$19,000,000,000 (2005)	Hurricane Ivan	Texas, Florida, East Coast
2005	Cyclone	120	$10,000,000,000 (2005)	Hurricane Rita	Louisiana
1938	Flood	115		Los Angeles Flood of 1938	Los Angeles, California
1964	Tsunami and Earthquake	115	$1,800,000,000 (2006)	Good Friday Earthquake	Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, California, British Columbia
1981	Accident - collapse	114		Hyatt Regency walkway collapse	Kansas City, Missouri
1947	Accident - Coal mine	111		Centralia mine disaster	Centralia, Illinois
1989	Accident - Aircraft	111		United Airlines Flight 232	Sioux City, Iowa
1996	Accident - Aircraft	110		ValuJet Flight 592	Florida Everglades
1918	Accident - Railroad	101		Great train wreck of 1918	Nashville, Tennessee
2003	Fire (building)	100		The Station nightclub fire	West Warwick, Rhode Island	4th-deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history, killing 100 people and injuring more than 200.
1910	Avalanche	96		Wellington avalanche	Wellington, Washington
1918	Accident - Railroad	93		Malbone Street Wreck	Brooklyn, New York
1876	Accident - Railroad	92		Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster	Ashtabula, Ohio
1990	Fire (building)	87		Happy Land Fire	New York City
1910	Fire (rural)	86		Great Fire of 1910	Washington, Idaho, Montana
1918	Accident - Railroad	86		Hammond Circus Train Wreck	Hammond, Indiana
1887	Accident - Railroad	81-85		Great Chatsworth Train Wreck == Headline text kuyfrkutyfkuyfukyfgyuyf ==
1963	Accident - Aircraft	81		Pan Am Flight 214	Elkton, Maryland	Lightning strike
1993	Blizzard	79-300	$6,600,000,00	1993 North American storm complex	East Coast of North and Central America
1982	Accident - Aircraft	78		Air Florida Flight 90	Washington, D.C.
1993	The Waco Siege	(Terrorist)	86 deaths	Branch Dividian Complex, Waco, TX
1936	Flood	69	$3,000,000,000 (2006)	Pittsburgh Flood 1936	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area
1989	Earthquake	69	$6,000,000,000 (1989)	Loma Prieta Earthquake	San Francisco Bay Area, California
1971	Earthquake	65	$500,000,000	Sylmar earthquake	Greater Los Angeles, California area
1856	Accident - Railroad	59-67		The Great Train Wreck of 1856	Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
2008	Tornado	59		2008 Super Tuesday tornado outbreak	Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, Alabama, and Illinois
1980	Volcano	57		1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens	Washington State
1994	Earthquake	57	$23,000,000,000	Northridge Earthquake	Greater Los Angeles area
1896	Accident - Railroad	50		1896 Atlantic City rail crash	New Jersey
1993	Flood	50	$15,000,000,000	Great Flood of 1993	Midwest
2009	Accident - Aircraft	50		Colgan Air Flight 3407	Clarence Center, New York
2004	Cyclone	49	$9,000,000,000	Hurricane Frances	Florida
2006	Accident - Aircraft	49		Comair Flight 5191	Lexington, Kentucky
1999	Tornado	48	$1,500,000,000 (2005)	1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak	Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Tennessee	66 tornadoes
1993	Accident - Railroad	47		Big Bayou Canot train disaster	Alabama
1927	Terrorism	45		Bath School Disaster	Michigan
1977	Accident - Dam failure	39		Kelly Barnes Dam
1937	Accident - Aircraft	36		Hindenburg disaster	Manchester, New Jersey	Hydrogen-filled zeppelin
1969	Accident - Aircraft	35		Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708	Lone Pine, California
1967	Accident - Aircraft	34		Mohawk Airlines Flight 40	Blossburg, Pennsylvania
2007	Terrorism	33		Virginia Tech massacre	Blacksburg, VA
1973	Fire	32		Upstairs Lounge	New Orleans, LA
1998	Blizzard	30		North American ice storm of 1998	Canada and Northeast
1990	Tornado	29	$160,000,000	1990 Plainfield tornado	Plainfield, Illinois Crest Hill, Illinois
1951	Flood	28	$7,000,000,000 (2005)	Great Flood of 1951	Kansas and Missouri
1988	Accident - Automobile	27		Carrollton bus disaster	Carrollton, Kentucky
1970	Tornado	26	$1,411,900,000 (2008)	Lubbock Tornado	Lubbock, Texas	F5 tornado killed 26 and wounded approximately 500
2008	Train collision	26		2008 Chatsworth train collision	Chatsworth, California
1991	Fire (building)	25	Deadliest train crash in Amtrak history	Hamlet chicken processing plant fire	Hamlet, North Carolina	Workers trapped behind locked doors
1991	Fire (rural)	25	$1,500,000,000	1991 Oakland firestorm	Oakland, California and vicinity
2005	Tornado	25	$92,000,000	Evansville Tornado of November 2005	Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio	7 tornadoes
1977	Blizzard	23	$56,250,000 (1977)	Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977	New York and Ontario (esp. Buffalo, New York)
1989	Accident - Explosion	23	$1,415,000,000 (1990)	Phillips Disaster	Pasadena, Texas	314 people injured
1992	Cyclone	23	$25,000,000,000	Hurricane Andrew	Florida and Louisiana
1919	Accident - Explosion	21	$6,600,000,000 (2005)	Boston molasses disaster	Boston, Massachusetts	Damages are out-of-court settlements only; repairs took 133 man-months
1872	Fire (urban conflagration)	20	$73,500,000 (1872)	Great Boston Fire of 1872	Boston, Massachusetts
1944	Accident - Aircraft	19		Long Creek Air Disaster	South Portland, Maine
1966	Terrorism	15		University of Texas Massacre	Austin, TX
1999	Terrorism	15		Columbine High School massacre	Jefferson County, CO
2007	Fire	12 dead (expected to rise)		California wildfires of October 2007	California	Large fires burnt out of control across southern California, fueled by unusually strong Santa Ana Winds; worst around San Diego; caused evacuation of over one million people. Most fires accidental; some suspected arson.
1976	Accident - Dam failure	11	$400,000,000	Teton Dam	Idaho
2004	Cyclone	10	$15,000,000,000	Hurricane Charley	Florida
2007	Accident - Bridge Collapse	13 dead, 111+ injured	$5,000,000	I-35W Mississippi River bridge Collapse	Minneapolis, Minnesota	Collapsed on August 1 at 6:05 PM during rush hour while resurfacing in progress.
1996	Flood	8	$500,000,000	Willamette Valley Flood of 1996	Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California
1901	Fire (urban conflagration)	7		Great Fire of 1901	Jacksonville, Florida
1986	Explosion Space Shuttle	7		Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster	Kennedy Space Center, Florida	The first in-flight deaths in the U.S. Space Program
2003	Explosion Space Shuttle	7		Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster	Texas
May 8, 1995	Flood	6	$1,360,000,000	May 8th 1995 Louisiana Flood	New Orleans, Louisiana area
2007	Accident - Explosion	4		T2 Laboratories	Jacksonville, Florida	14 injuries
2007	Accident - Coal mine	3 dead, 6 missing, 6 injured		Crandall Canyon Mine Collapse	Huntington, Utah	Original collapse on August 6 at 2:48 AM MDT, 6 miners missing. On August 16 at 6:30 PM MDT, 9 rescue workers caught in second collapse while trying to get to trapped miners. Three rescue workers pronounced dead; other 6 injured.
1999	Accident - Explosion	2		Phillips explosion of 1999	Pasadena, Texas	4 injuries
1754-1763	War			French and Indian War
1776	Fire (urban conflagration)			Great Fire of New York (1776)	Manhattan, New York City
1816	Volcano			Year Without a Summer		Volcanic dust caused crop failures and starvation
1835	Fire (urban conflagration)		$20,000,000 (1835)	Great Fire of New York
1888	Cold wave			1888 Northwest Cold Wave	Northwest
1914	Fire (urban conflagration)		$290,000,000 (2005)	Great Salem Fire of 1914
1931-1939	Drought			Dust Bowl	Great Plains	Compounded by unsustainable agricultural techniques
1989	Cyclone		$7,000,000,000 (1989)	Hurricane Hugo		Damage figure for U.S. only
2000	Accident - Explosion	1		Phillips explosion of 2000	Pasadena, Texas	71 injuries
1997	Flood	0	$2,000,000,000	1997 Red River Flood	North Dakota, Minnesota, Southern Manitoba

See also

• List of natural disasters by death toll
• List of wars and disasters by death toll
• List of accidents and disasters by death toll
• List of terrorist incidents in the United States
• List of epidemics
• List of Canadian disasters by death toll
• Category:Disasters in the United States