From Haiti to China, a look back at some of the forgotten disasters that struck in 2021.

In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) devastated the Philippines, killing thousands and yielding unprecedented wreckage.

The Gorkha Earthquake in Nepal occurred on 25 April 2015 and had a magnitude of 7.6. Its epicentre was about 76km northwest of the capital Kathmandu. It was followed by more than 300 aftershocks. Around 9,000 people were killed, of whom approximately 55 per cent were female, and over 100,000 people were injured. Overall eight million people have been impacted, which is almost one-third of the population of Nepal.

A massive landslide devastated the commu­nity of Barangay Guinsaugon, Municipality of St. Bernard, Southern Leyte Province, Philip­pines, at about 10:30 local time on 17 February 2006.

Tropical Cyclone Idai made landfall near Beira City, Mozambique on 14 March 2019, bringing strong winds and severe flooding in Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Madagascar. Cyclone Idai was followed one month later by Tropical Cyclone Kenneth, which made landfall in Mozambique as the strongest cyclone to ever hit the African continent.

The Izmit Earthquake, also called Kocaeli Earthquake or Golcuk Earthquake, occurred on 17 August 1999. The magnitude 7.4 earthquake, which lasted less than a minute, struck the Anatolian fault system with the epicentre at about 7 miles southeast of Izmit. It caused the deaths of 17,000 people and left more than 250,000 people homeless. It was followed by the magnitude 7.2 Duzce Earthquake on 12 November 1999, which also occurred on the North Anatolian Fault and caused at least 845 deaths in Duzce and surrounding areas.

The Nevado del Ruiz Volcanic Eruption, also known as the Armero Tragedy, is considered as Colombia’s worst natural hazard-induced disaster which produced the deadliest lahar ever recorded. After 69 years of dormancy, the stratovolcano in Tolima, Colombia erupted in 13 November 1985 melting the mountain’s glaciers and sending lahars down its slopes at 60 kilometers per hour.

Tropical Cyclone (TC) Gita formed in early February 2018 and developed into a category 4 cyclone, affecting multiple countries in the Pacific region. Tonga was hardest-hit, incurring severe damage.

The morning of December 26, 2004 saw the worst disaster in Indonesia’s history. A magnitude (M) 9.1 submarine earthquake occurred along the Indian Ocean subduction zone triggering a massive tsunami that destroyed 800 km of the coastal areas of Aceh Province with inundation observed as far as 6 km inland. Post disaster damage and loss assessment revealed staggering numbers on the calamity that include over 220,000 human fatalities and the destruction of 139,000 houses, 73,869 hectares of agricultural lands, 2,618 kilometers of roads, 3,415 schools, 104,500 small-medium enterprises, 13,828 fishing boats, 119 bridges, 669 government buildings, 517 health facilities, 1,089 worship places, 22 seaports, and 8 airports and airstrips (BRR-Agency for the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Aceh and Nias, 2009). Added to these statistics, more than half a million tsunami survivors were internally displaced and hundreds of thousands more lost their livelihoods.

A strong earthquake in Canterbury, New Zealand, triggered a series of aftershocks, including an earthquake that resulted in multiple deaths in Christchurch.