Cyclones

Updated April 19, 2023 | Infoplease Staff

Find data about the most intense and deadliest cyclones from 1864 through present day.

1864

Oct. 5, Calcutta, India: 70,000 killed.

1942

Oct. 16, Bengal, India: about 40,000 lives lost.

1960

Oct. 10, East Pakistan: cyclone and tidal wave killed about 6,000.

1963

May 28–29, East Pakistan: cyclone killed about 22,000 along coast.

1965

May 11–12 and June 1–2, East Pakistan: cyclones killed about 47,000.

Dec. 15, Karachi, Pakistan: about 10,000 killed.

1970

Nov. 12–13, East Pakistan: cyclone and tidal waves killed 200,000 and another 100,000 were reported missing.

1971

Sept. 29, Orissa state, India: cyclone and tidal wave killed as many as 10,000 off the Bay of Bengal.

1974

Dec. 25, Darwin, Australia: cyclone destroyed nearly the entire city; 50 reported dead.

1977

Nov. 19, Andhra Pradesh, India: cyclone and tidal wave claimed lives of 20,000.

1991

April 30, southeast Bangladesh: cyclone killed over 131,000 and left up to 9 million homeless. Thousands of survivors died from hunger and water-borne disease.

1999

Oct. 29, Orissa state, India: supercyclone swept in from Bay of Bengal, killing at least 9,573 and leaving over 10 million homeless.

2004

March 8, Antalaha, Madagascar: Cyclone Gafilo, with winds of 160 mph and heavy rains, leaves hundreds of thousands homeless and killed 295 people. More than 100 were on a ferry that sank off the island of Comoros.

2007

November 15, southern Bangladesh: Cyclone Sidr, with winds over 100 miles per hour, killed nearly 3,500 people in southern Bangladesh. The United Nations reported that a million people are left homeless.

2008

May 3, Myanmar: Cyclone Nargis hit the Irrawaddy Delta and the city of Yangon, killing at least 22,500 people— 41,000 more still missing. Most of the deaths and destruction were caused by a 12-foot high tidal wave that formed during the storm.

2015

March 14, Vanuatu: Tropical Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu directly. At least 3,300 people sought shelter in 37 evacuation centers. The United Nations called Cyclone Pam the South Pacific's worst natural disaster. Nine countries experienced some level of devastation due to the storm: Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Fiji, Tuvalu, and Papua New Guinea. The death toll was 11, according to the UN on March 17, but the number was expected to rise as the rescue effort continued.