Hurricanes kill about 80 Americans each year. The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency tracks storms and offers advice on protecting your family and pets from natural disasters. Tropical Prediction Center Learn about famous storms of the past, check out satellite images, and find out what storm names may make the headlines in 1998. Floods Deadliest and costliest natural disaster, flooding comes in several forms. Flash floods, by-products of heavy rains, strike fast, sometimes killing dozens or hundreds of people with scant warning.
Seasonal floods occur when rivers overrun their banks in the wet season.
China's Yellow River killed nearly a million people during an 1887 flood. This professional organization aids administrators and governments involved with flood hazard actions and policies. The Earth quakes every day. Slight tremors, most of them invisible to all but the most exacting instruments, add up to millions of quakes a year. Only about a thousand of those earthquakes cause damage.