According to the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), 336 natural disasters and 234 technological disasters were reported worldwide in 2011. The deadliest natural disaster was the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan in March, which killed 19,846 people. The number of deaths is much lower than those caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004 (226,408 deaths) and the earthquake of January 2010 in Haiti (222,570 deaths). In 2011, almost 70 per cent of people reported affected were victims of floods. The most severe occurred in June and September in China (68 and 20 million, respectively). Fifteen other floods affected 1 to 9 million people … Continue reading International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies