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Disasters in 1961, page 2

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NATURAL

January 20-24 A snowstorm that began in the Rocky Mountains killed 71 persons as it moved eastward across the central United States.

January 20 A northeast storm caused moderate to severe tidal flooding and wave damage on the New England coast, particularly near Boston, Massachusetts. Damages were estimated at about $10,000,000.

January 26 A winter storm killed 34 persons in the eastern United States.

February 3-6 Snow and strong winds in the northeastern United States were responsible for the deaths of about 70 persons.

February 3 A rain-soaked rock pile slid into six houses in Fleron, France, killing 20 persons.

February 23-27 Floods in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi killed 13 persons.

March 4 A tornado on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, killed 1 person and injured 93 others.

March 13 A mudslide at a reclamation project near Kiev, Russia, killed 145 persons and injured 143 others.

March 19 A tornado struck four districts of East Pakistan, killing 206 persons and injuring another 800.

March 25 A flood was reported to have swept away apartment houses in Kiev, Russia, killing 67 persons.

April 2-3 Flooding along the Hamukua coast of Hawaii caused damages of about $2,000,000 over an area of about 105 square miles.

April 5 Two landslides killed 25 workers at a dam-construction site on Hokkaido Island, Japan.

April 25 Tornadoes and heavy rain killed at least 4 persons in Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, and Ohio.

May 5 A tornado killed 15 persons in Howe and Reichert, Oklahoma. [newspaper account]

May 7 Tornadoes and floods killed 7 persons in Arkansas.

May 8 A 7-hour cyclonic storm claimed the lives of 430 persons in East Pakistan.

May 9 A typhoon swept the Bay of Bengal coastal areas, killing 22 persons.

May 10 Floods in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, and Missouri were reported to have killed 25 persons.

June 1 About 50 homes, apartment buildings, and a factory collapsed after an earth cave-in at Clamart, France; 20 persons were killed and 37 injured.

A man whose wife and daughter were killed by the cave-in at Clamart is consoled; his son was among the injured.

June 4 A landslide in southern Formosa buried a village and two trains and killed 45 persons.

June 11-12 Earthquakes killed about 50 persons in Iran.

June 24-July 1 Floods and landslides killed about 250 persons in southern Japan.

June 30 A landslide killed 80 villagers in central Japan.

July 12 Floodwaters burst through a dam at Namwon, South Korea, killing at least 114 persons.

July 19 A flash flood, after a violent rainstorm, killed 21 persons and destroyed 1,500 homes in Charleston, West Virginia.

September 11-13 Floods and tornadoes spawned by Hurricane Carla killed 30 persons in Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Kansas.

Freeport, Texas, was completely inundated by floodwaters from Hurricane Carla on September 12.

September 12-13 Typhoon Pamela killed over 100 persons and injured at least 900 in Formosa (Taiwan).

September 16-17 Typhoon Nancy killed over 150 persons in Japan; 3,879 persons were reported injured, and property damage was estimated at $230,000,000.

October 1-9 Floods in Bihar State, India, killed about 700 persons, including some 100 children who had climbed onto a school roof when water surged into the classrooms.

October 2-3 Typhoon Tilda killed 6 persons on Okinawa.

October 10 Volcanic eruptions forced the evacuation of all 250 inhabitants of the island of Tristan de Cunha.

October 26-28 Heavy rains and landslides killed 64 persons and injured 80 others in western Japan.

October 31 Hurricane Hattie killed about 300 persons in British Honduras and 38 in Guatemala.

A dog guards the remains of his Belize, British Honduras, home.
November 6 A 4-hour cyclone followed by floods devastated a large part of Athens, Greece, killed 43 persons, injured at least 350, and left 4,500 homeless.

A woman mourns the death of her husband as she stands outside the ruins of her Athens home.

November 10-12 Hurricane Tara struck north of Acapulco, Mexico, and swept 120 miles along the coast, destroying the seaside village of Tuxco; 430 persons were known killed and hundreds were listed as missing.

November 18-25 Heavy unseasonal rains caused flooding of the Juba and Webi Shebeli rivers over a 60,000-square-mile area of Somalia. About 200 persons were reported killed and more than 300,000 were left homeless.

December 8-11 Snow and cold swept from the Rocky Mountains to the Great Lakes, killing 88 persons.

December 20 An earthquake killed 23 persons in Colombia.

RAIL

January 9 An express train collided head-on with a freight train nearBarcelona, Spain, killing at least 25 persons and injuring more than 50 others.

February 2 Six persons were killed when a train carrying more than 300 passengers derailed near Bowie, Maryland. [newspaper account]

March 24 The Karachi Express derailed at Kotri, Pakistan, killing 22 persons.

June 13 The collision of two commuter trains near Stuttgart, West Germany, killed 35 persons.

June 18 The Strasbourg-Paris Express derailed and plunged down a 30-foot embankment near Vitry-le-François, France, killing 24 persons and injuring at least 100 others.

August 27 A train crash in Moravia Province, Czechoslovakia, killed 18 persons and injured 10 others.

October 5 A commuter train ran into a repair train on a curve of an elevated railroad track in Hamburg, West Germany, killing 35 persons.

October 20 A train derailed west of Calcutta, India, killing more than 50 persons and injuring 300 others.

December 23 One coach of a 2-car train broke loose as the train came to a bridge and fell into the Fiumarella River near Catanzara, Italy, killing 70 persons and injuring 30 others.

STRUCTURAL

January 15 An Air Force radar tower collapsed and sank in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New Jersey, killing 28 airmen and civilian workers.

August 7 A 57-ton steel and concrete door collapsed into a Titan missile launching site nearDenver, Colorado, killing 5 workmen.

August 29 A French Air Force plane cut a traction cable on the aerial cable lift on Mont Blanc, France. Three cars fell 500 feet into the Vallee Blanché glacier bed, killing 6 persons.

A woman being rescued from a stranded cable car after a French Air Force plane cut a cable.

September 3 A bridge under construction in North Sikkim, India, collapsed, killing 62 persons.

TRAFFIC

February 8 A bus careened off a highway into a canal at Bilbeis, United Arab Republic, killing 21 of the 43 passengers.

May 4 A truck returning pilgrims from a Buddhist festival plunged into a creek in central Burma, drowning 23 persons.

May 17 A bus plunged into a ditch and caught fire near the Venezuela-Colombia border after a passenger lit a cigarette. Twenty persons were killed.

May 21 A bus carrying pilgrims to a festival plunged into a 60-foot ravine and caught fire near Seville, Spain, killing 21 persons and injuring 46 others.

July 10 A bus and a train collided in southern Formosa, killing 49 persons.

August 2 A bus carrying U.S. tourists collided with a truck on a narrow road and plunged into Lake Lucerne at Hergiswil, Switzerland, killing 16 of the 22 passengers.

August 10 A bus was swept away while crossing a flooded hill stream near Pooch, India; 47 persons drowned.

September 26 A truck loaded with workmen plunged over a cliff in southeast Turkey, killing 31 persons and injuring 15 others.

September 30 A train hit a bus at a crossing near Taipei, Taiwan, killing 10 persons.

October 22 A bus plunged into a mountain canyon near Prijepolje, Yugoslavia, killing 39 of the 52 persons aboard.

December 14 A school bus was hit by a train at a crossing near Greeley, Colorado, killing 20 children and injuring 13 others.

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SKC Films Library >> In The Year... >> 1961

This page was last updated on September 22, 2018.