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Impact WORLD’S WORST 16-17
The city of Yungay was buried under eighty million cubic metres of water, mud, and rocks.
More than eighteen thousand people were dead in the towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca.
While flying above the city, a Peruvian relief pilot had reported, ‘Yungay no longer exists’.
Excavation of the area was forbidden by the Peruvian government, and Yungay was
declared a national cemetery.
Other big avalanches
The worst avalanche in the US occurred in Cascade
Mountains in Wellington, Washington, DC. Towards the
end of February 1910, a nine-day long blizzard and heavy
snowfall had trapped two trains in the depot.
On 1 March, an avalanche hit the rail depot in
Wellington. The impact threw the trains more
than forty-five metres downhill into a canyon,
killing ninety-six people aboard the trains.
In the winter of 1950–51, a series of 649
avalanches occurred in a three-month
period in the Alps. Around 265 people
were killed, mostly in Austria and
Switzerland. This winter was
called the ‘winter of terror’.
Did you know?
Avalanches triggered by artillery
fire killed some fifty thousand
soldiers on the Italian-Austrian
front in the Alps during the
First World War.
This isn’t a
snowball fight!
In 1962, another avalanche occurred on the
slopes of Mount Huascaran, destroying the town
of Ranrahirca and its neighbouring villages,
killing about five thousand people.
The city of Yungay was buried under eighty million cubic metres of water, mud, and rocks.
More than eighteen thousand people were dead in the towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca.
While flying above the city, a Peruvian relief pilot had reported, ‘Yungay no longer exists’.
Excavation of the area was forbidden by the Peruvian government, and Yungay was
declared a national cemetery.
Other big avalanches
The worst avalanche in the US occurred in Cascade
Mountains in Wellington, Washington, DC. Towards the
end of February 1910, a nine-day long blizzard and heavy
snowfall had trapped two trains in the depot.
On 1 March, an avalanche hit the rail depot in
Wellington. The impact threw the trains more
than forty-five metres downhill into a canyon,
killing ninety-six people aboard the trains.
In the winter of 1950–51, a series of 649
avalanches occurred in a three-month
period in the Alps. Around 265 people
were killed, mostly in Austria and
Switzerland. This winter was
called the ‘winter of terror’.
Did you know?
Avalanches triggered by artillery
fire killed some fifty thousand
soldiers on the Italian-Austrian
front in the Alps during the
First World War.
This isn’t a
snowball fight!
In 1962, another avalanche occurred on the
slopes of Mount Huascaran, destroying the town
of Ranrahirca and its neighbouring villages,
killing about five thousand people.
