#1. Bangladesh Cyclones

The sheer population density of Bangladesh — 2,639 people per square mile — guarantees that any natural disaster in that South Asian nation will take a severe human toll. When Cyclone Sidr struck southern Bangladesh on Nov. 15, it was no different.

Packing winds of over 100 mph, the storm took out power lines and trees, and pulverized mud-and-thatch homes. The death toll was over 1,000, with more than half a million people forced to flee their homes. But by Bangladesh’s sad standards, Sidr was nothing — a cyclone in 1991 killed an astounding 140,000 people.

#2. Southeast U.S. Droughts

Water experts like to call drought the Rodney Dangerfield of natural disasters: It gets no respect. But the long dry that gripped much of the American Southeast this year is making everyone take notice. Normally verdant, Georgia and several neighboring states are suffering through their worst dry spell in recorded history. At one point the city of Atlanta, one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the U.S., had just three months of water left. As the drought worsened, it triggered a nasty legal fight between Florida, Georgia and Alabama over declining water supplies. The chief legacy of the 2007 drought will be this: It could well be water, not energy or oil, which finally constrains American growth.

#3. Mexico Floods

A natural disaster in a rich country like the United States can be an inconvenience. In an

impoverished nation like Mexico, it is a human catastrophe. Massive floods that struck the southern Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas in late October and November left vast stretches of land completely submerged — an estimated 80% of Tabasco was under water at one point, and as many as one million residents were affected by the floods. Mexican President Felipe Calderon put it simply: “This is one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the country.”

#4. Hurricane Felix

The U.S. got off lightly in the hurricane season of 2007, but not every country was so lucky. A Category 5 storm — the highest possible rating — Hurricane Felix slammed into Nicaragua on Sept.4 with winds that ranged up to 160 mph. The storm also hit Honduras and grazed the Caribbean islands. Altogether Felix killed 101 people, and pulverized the impoverished coastal communities of Nicaragua. One bright side — the storm hit heavily forested areas, which blunted the force of the winds.

#5. Indonesian Mud Volcano

It wasn’t exactly an act of God — the blame should go to a poorly run natural gas drilling project — but the out-of-control mud flows near the Indonesian city of Surabaya certainly resembled something out of a disaster movie. The problem started in late May, when hot mud broke into a well that had been drilled without proper protective casing. When the company tried to stop up the mud with cement plugs, it eventually flowed to the surface and burst through the ground in a series of foul geysers. By October the mud was flowing at rate of about 170,000 cubic feet a day, utterly submerging neighboring villages and factories, and leaving over 10,000 people homeless.

#6. South Asia Floods

Subject to the monsoon rains, home to billions, South Asia is forever teetering between too little water and too much of it. This summer it was the latter. A series of abnormal monsoon rains in northern India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh in July and August eventually led to what UNICEF called “the worst flood in living memory.” By mid-August some 30 million people across the region had been displaced, and more than 2,000 would die in the floods. Damages were estimated to be at least $120 million, which was less a measure of the severity of the floods than the utter poverty of affected areas.

#7. North Korea Floods

Life in North Korea is one long, man-made disaster, and the full magnitude of human suffering that goes on north of the DMZ may never be known. But the world received a glimpse of the precarious state of the hermit kingdom in August, when wide-scale flooding afflicted the southern part of the country. Details are patchwork, but more than 400 people were believed killed, and the damage was extensive enough that the Mass Games, Pyongyang’s yearly and freaky athletic showcase, were postponed. Even worse than the immediate damage was the destruction wrought on the starving country’s farmland — the World Food Programme estimated that 450,000 tons of grain production was lost.

#8. Earthquake in Peru

2007 was a light year for earthquakes, but not in Peru. An 8.0 magnitude temblor hit the central coast of the South American nation on Aug. 15, leaving more than 500 people dead and 1,366 injured, and more than 50,000 homes destroyed. Much of the worst damage occurred in the city of Pisco, which was 80% destroyed. As many as 430 people died, including over 100 who were killed when a cathedral they were praying in collapsed.

#9. Greece Forest Fires

This was the summer that Greece burned. Through June, July and August, vicious heat waves, with temperatures exceeding 105°F, and lengthy droughts turned the country into a tinderbox. The worst fires occurred in August, when a series of sudden firestorms in Peloponnese, Attica and Euboea left nearly 70 people dead. Residents in Olympia, site of the ancient Olympics, had to be evacuated, along with citizens throughout the south of the country. Altogether the infernos burned nearly half a million acres.

#10. China Floods

Floods used to be a regular and catastrophic fact of life in wet southern China, where the mighty Yangtze River regularly burst its bounds in the spring. Anti-flood preparations and economic growth have helped limit the worst damage in recent years, but water won’t be denied. This June days of drenching rain led to floods and landslides throughout southern China, including the prosperous manufacturing province of Guangdong. More than 60 people were killed and half a million were forced to flee their homes; economic damage was estimated at nearly $400 million.

Looking around I found quite a few different lists of what people consider the top disasters of the year. The year in question is 2007 of course with the new year just a few days away now.

Here we go with more top disasters of the year from a French perspective, this list was compiled and published by Agence France-Presse

NewsEdge Insight: 12/18/2007

Disasters in 2007 - floods, fires and hurricanes

Some of the biggest disasters of 2007:

- In November, a cyclone kills around 3,300 people and leaves hundreds of thousands homeless and in desperate need of supplies in Bangladesh. A military-led relief effort, aided by a fleet of US helicopters, is hampered by huge logistical hurdles after many roads are washed away by a tidal wave or blocked by fallen trees.

- More than 3,200 people are killed and 25 million of others marooned and displaced in the worst floods in decades across South Asia between June and September. Heavy monsoon rains and snow melt have caused the flooding in Nepal, India and Bangladesh, with losses estimated at nearly one billion dollars, and populations facing famine and water-borne disease.

- In Peru, an earthquake kills at least 540 people in August, leaving more than 1,000 injured and more than 176,000 people homeless. A total of 35,000 homes are destroyed in the quake, which measures 7.7 on the Richter scale. Most of the destruction is in the town of Pisco, a port city south-east of Lima which is 85 percent destroyed.

- In Eastern China 172 miners die in a flooded mine after heavy rains cause a nearby river to burst its banks on August 18, flooding a coal mine near the city of Xintai. In Siberia a gas explosion in the remote Ulyanovskaya coal mine kills 110 people on March 19, in Russia’s worst mine disaster since the collapse of the former Soviet Union. On November 18 at least 100 miners are killed in a coal mine blast in Ukraine, and December 5 sees another underground blast in China, which kills over 100 workers.

- A July heatwave claims hundreds of lives in Europe, with up to 500 dying in Hungary alone. Deaths are also recorded across southern Europe, including in Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Croatia. In southern Italy a wildfire burns two people alive in their car and suffocates another two when it spreads to a beach nearby.

- An Indonesian Adam Air Boeing 737-400 airliner disappears on New Year’s Day over the sea with 102 people on board. In July an Airbus 320 plane belonging to Tam airlines crashes in Sao Paulo, killing 199 people in Brazil’s worst ever air disaster. In September the crash of a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 plane belonging to One-Two-Go kills 90 people out of 130 passengers and crew on the holiday island of Phuket, Thailand, while landing.

- At least 67 people are killed and over 800 homes destroyed and 500 damaged in a 12-day fire inferno which rages across southern Greece’s Peloponnese peninsula from August 24 to September 3. The fires destroy more than 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of forest and farmland including most of the olive groves essential to the local economy. Also heavily affected is the Aegean island of Euboea.

- Hurricane Dean slams into Mexico killing around 30 people in August, after a rampage across the Caribbean. In early September it is followed by Hurricane Felix, which kills at least 100 in Nicaragua and Honduras. Floods and landslides triggered by Tropical Storm Noel than kill at least 122 people in the Caribbean in late October.

- A bridge being built across Vietnam’s Hau river collapses on September 26, killing 54 people and leaving dozens injured. In July, 13 motorists die when a major road bridge falls into the Mississippi River in the US state of Minnesota, while in August at least 64 workers die when a river bridge in central China collapses as they are completing its construction.

- Sixty-four African would-be migrants, including three children, drown in the Gulf of Aden while making the perilous trip from Somalia to Yemen in November. In late July 50 African migrants are presumed dead after their boat capsizes in heavy seas in the Atlantic Ocean as they seek to reach Spain’s Canary Islands. They are among well over 1,000 migrants who have lost their lives while trying to reach Europe by sea this year, according to an Italian monitoring group.

Here is the year end list of the worst natural and man made disasters of 2007 - Plane crashes, tornadoes, storms… check out the list

February 2007 Disasters

• Feb. 2, Florida: At least 20 people died when tornadoes and thunderstorms ripped through central Florida.
• Feb. 18, India: Two homemade bombs exploded on a train headed for Pakistan from India, killing at least 70.
• Feb. 18, Thailand: Some 30 coordinated bombs exploded at bars, hotels, and electricity transmitters in Pattani Province, killing or wounding 60 people.

March 2007 Disasters

• March 1, Ala., Minn., Miss., and Ga.: Storms hit Alabama, Minnesota, Missouri, and Georgia, killing about 20 people, including eight high school students.
• March 6, Sumatra, Indonesia: Two earthquakes, magnitudes 6.4 and 6.3, struck the island of Sumatra two hours apart, killing at least 70 people.
• March 7, Yogyakarta, Indonesia: A Garuda Indonesia Airlines plane overshot the runway and crashed, killing 22 of the 140 people on board.
• March 19, Ulyanovskaya, Russia: A methane explosion killed 110 people in a coal mine. It was the worst mine disaster in recent Russian history. .

April 2007 Disasters

• April 1, Honiara, Solomon Islands: Magnitude 8.1 earthquake and ensuing tsunami left at least 34 dead and thousands homeless.
• April 16, Blacksburg, Va.: A Virginia Tech student killed 32 fellow students and then himself in the most deadly shooting rampage in U.S. history.

May 2007 Disasters

• May 5, Doula, Cameroon: A Kenya-bound Kenya Airways plane took off in stormy weather and crashed moments later, killing all 114 people on board.
• May 7, Greensburg, Kansas: A tornado destroyed a small farming town, killing 10.
• May 24, Novokuznetsk, Russia: A methane explosion killed 38 coal miners in Yubileinaya, two months after a similiar explosion in a nearby town killed 110.

June 2007 Disasters

• June 10, Chittagong, Bangladesh and Beijing, China: Mudslides set off by heavy monsoon rains killed at least 62 people in Bangladesh. Torrential rains in southern China caused flooding in small cities and farming villages, killing at least 66.
• June 18, Charleston, S.C.: Nine firefighters died when a roof collapsed during a fire in a furniture warehouse.
• June 24, Karachi, Pakistan: More than 200 people died during severe storms in Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city.

July 2007 Disasters

• July 8, West Bengal, India: Monsoon rains and flooding left 660 dead and more than a million stranded.
• July 17, Niigata, Japan: 6.8 magnitude earthquake left at least 11 dead and injured more than 900. A nuclear power plant in nearby Kashiwazaki sustained significant damage, including minor radiation leaks, ruptured pipes, flooding, and a fire.
• July 17, Sao Paulo, Brazil: More than 176 people were killed when an Airbus skidded off the runway at Congonhas Airport in rainy weather. It was the worst aviation accident in Brazil’s history.

August 2007 Disasters

• August 1, Minneapolis, Minn.: An eight-lane interstate bridge packed with cars broke into sections and collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing at least nine, and injuring at least 60. The bridge was in the midst of repairs when it buckled and broke apart.
• August 1, Benaleka, Congo: A passenger train running between Ilebo and Kananga derailed after the brakes failed, killing about 100 people.
• August 14, North Korea: Hundreds are reported dead or missing after a week of heavy rain in central and southern North Korea. Huge areas of farmland were washed away, provoking fears that North Korea’s food crisis could worsen.
• August 14, Hunan province, China: A bridge undergoing construction collapsed in southern China, killing at least 28 people.
• August 15, coast of central Peru: A 8.0-magnitude earthquake 95 miles southeast of Lima, Peru, leaves at least 337 people dead, and injures hundreds more.
• August 25–27, Greece: Over 220 separate fires ravage the Greek countryside and endanger ancient Olympic sites around Athens. At least 59 people die in the blazes.

September 2007 Disasters

• September 12 and 13, Sumatra, Indonesia: More than a dozen people die on the island of Sumatra when three earthquakes, one with a magnitude of 8.4, strike.
• September 16, Phuket, Bangkok: A McDonnell Douglas MD-82 plane, which took off from Bangkok, skids off the runway and bursts into flames during heavy rain in Phuket. At least 88 people are killed.
• September 24, Sudan: Over 20 people die, at least 13,000 livestock are lost, and 65 people are injured by flooding in central Sudan during August and September. Over half a million people countrywide are affected by the floods. Clean water is being provided to 2.2 million people to prevent deadly epidemics.

October 2007 Disasters

• October 13, southern Colombia: 21 people die and another 26 are injured in a landslide that was triggered by local residents digging for rumored gold deposits in an abandoned mine.

• October 21–28, southern Calif.: 24 wildfires from Simi Valley to the Mexican border are fanned by 50 to 60 mph winds burning more than 516,000 acres. Seven people die, close to 90 people are injured, more than 2,000 homes are destroyed, and over 500,000 people evacuate their homes. A 10-year-old boy admits to accidentally starting one of the fires while playing with matches.

• October 31, Carribean: 107 people die during Tropical Storm Noel. 66 people die, 27 are missing, 6,300 homes are destroyed, and more than 62,000 people are homeless when two rivers burst 26 miles outside Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. At least 40 people die and 400 homes are destroyed in Haiti. In Cuba, 24,000 people are evacuated from low-lying areas and 2,000 homes are damaged by floods.

November 2007 Disasters

• November 3, Mexico: Villahermosa, the capital of the southeastern state of Tabasco, remains paralyzed with no clean drinking water and electricity after severe flooding caused by five days of torrential rain. At least 300,000 people evacuate their homes, 70,000 people are in shelters, and one person dies. Most of the state’s crops are destroyed and 4,000 schools are damaged.

• November 12, southern Russia: During a severe storm in the Black Sea 11 ships sink, 3 people die, and 20 sailors go missing. The tanker, Volganeft-139, splits apart and dumps 1,300 tons (about 360,000 gallons) of oil into the sea killing marine habitat, fish, and covering 30,000 seabirds in oil.

• November 15, Bangladesh: Cyclone Sidr, with winds over 100 miles per hour, kills nearly 3,500 people in southern Bangladesh. The United Nations reports that a million people are without homes.

• November 18, Donetsk, Ukraine: 90 people die and 10 are missing in the deadliest mining explosion since 1991.
• November 23, Antarctica: The Explorer strikes ice during an adventure cruise in the Antarctic causing the ship to sink. The National Geographic Endeavour and the Norwegian cruise liner, Nordnorge, resue all 100 passengers and 50 staff members.
• November 30, western Turkey: A passenger jet, the McDonnell Douglas MD-83, crashes seven miles from its destination airport in Isparta, killing all 56 passengers.

December 2007 Disasters

• December 5, Omaha, Nebraska: Robert Hawkins, 19, of Bellevue, Nebraska, kills eight people before turning the gun on himself at the Von Maur department store in the Westroads Mall in Omaha. Five people are also wounded.
• December 7, South Korea: Oil spill causes environmental disaster, destroying beaches, coating birds and oysters with oil, and driving away tourists with its stench. The Hebei Spirit collides with a steel wire connecting a tug boat and barge five miles off South Korea’s west coast, spilling 2.8 million gallons of crude oil. Seven thousand people are trying to clean up 12 miles of oil-coated coast.