United States, Midwest

Notable Disasters in the Midwest

The midwest is vulnerable to the impacts of heat waves, especially large urban areas such as Chicago. A single, extended extreme heat events (EHE) over a large geographic area has the potential to cause thousands of deaths and extensive heat-related morbidity in metropolitan and adjacent rural areas. The 1980 summer heat wave and drought caused 10,000 deaths and over $55 billion in damages.

One of the worst and most widespread droughts in recent decades occurred in the midwest in 1988. Dry conditions began as early as late winter 1987, and conditions deteriorated throughout the following spring. By early June 1988, many locations from the Canadian border to Texas had received less than 50 percent of normal precipitation; some areas received less than 40 percent. From March to May, Des Moines, Iowa, suffered through less than three inches of rain—only 30 percent of the average of over nine inches. The drought worsened into June and July, and scorching summer temperatures added to the situation that was fast becoming an agricultural disaster. Just 0.22 inches of rain fell in Minneapolis during June 1988, just 5 percent of the over 4 inches that typically falls. Dozens of stations across the midwest recorded record high temperatures. Valentine, Nebraska, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, soared to 110 degrees F, and readings topped the century mark in many other locations.

An estimated 7,500 deaths resulted from the heat wave, and the region experienced very severe losses to agriculture and related industries: An estimated $40 billion in damages, with over $71 billion in total damages.

Technological accidents have made their mark in the region as well. On July 19, 1989, United Airlines flight 232 en route from Denver to Chicago made an emergency landing in Iowa. At 37,000 feet, the Douglas DC-10 suffered an uncontained failure of its number two engine, destroying the aircraft's hydraulic system. Upon its emergency landing, the plane broke up on the runway in Sioux City. While 110 of the 285 persons on the plane and one of the 11 crew members died, the [Page 725]survival of the remaining 174 passengers and 10 crew members was attributed to the skill of the crew and a DC-10 instructor pilot that had been a passenger on the plane. As well, on the ground in Sioux City, the recently identified performance gaps and corrective measures taken in emergency disaster training and exercises that were conducted just prior to those event were also credited for saving lives on the runway.

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