2005 a year of severe natural disasters all over world

Published: 2005-12-09

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Hurricanes. Earthquakes. Tsunamis. Floods. Tornadoes. The past year may go down as one of history's worst for natural disasters. At the start of the year, disaster relief efforts were just beginning for the millions of people in southern Asia whose lives were changed by one of the worst tsunamis in history that struck Dec. 26, 2004. Thousands were still being added daily to the official death toll -- which eventually rose to more than 180,000, with almost 50,000 more missing and believed dead. At year's end New Orleans was still in the early stages of recovery from the floods that followed after Hurricane Katrina hit Aug. 29 and breached the levees along Lake Pontchartrain. The hurricane also devastated towns and cities along the coast of Mississippi. In October a severe earthquake in Pakistan, also affecting India to the south and Afghanistan to the north, left more than 80,000 dead and an estimated 3 million homeless. Pope Benedict XVI appealed to the world community to respond generously to the earthquake victims, as they had to the tsunami and hurricane victims earlier in the year. Catholic relief efforts reached record levels in the face of those and other disasters.

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