September 2001 Disasters

Updated September 9, 2022 | Infoplease Staff

• Sept. 1, Tokyo, Japan: Fire in a crowded gambling club killed 44 people. It was the worst incident of its kind in Tokyo since 1982, when 33 people were killed in a hotel fire.
• Sept. 11, New York City and Arlington, Va.: Hijackers crashed 2 commercial jets from Boston into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing the collapse of both towers and other nearby buildings. A short time later, 2 more hijacked U.S. planes crashed, one into the Pentagon and the other into a field near Shanksville, Pa. All 266 people aboard the planes were killed; total dead and missing numbered 2,992, including the 19 hijackers. The names of the hijackers, four of whom have been connected to terrorist Osama bin Laden, were released in mid-September.
• Sept. 17–18, Taiwan: Typhoon Nari caused 79 deaths.
• Sept. 21, Toulouse, France: Explosion at one of France's largest petrochemical plants left 29 people dead, at least 10 missing, and more than 2,500 injured. The blast caused earth tremors measuring 3.4 in magnitude and damaged an estimated 20,000 buildings, some as far as 3 mi away.
• Sept. 23, Brookwood, Ala.: 2 gas explosions at the Blue Creek No. 5 mine, the nation's deepest vertical shaft coal mine, killed 13 miners. It was the deadliest U.S. mine disaster since 1984, when a fire killed 27 coal miners near Orangeville, Utah.
• Sept. 24, Maryland and Virginia: Tornado tore a path of destruction from Culpeper, Va., to Laurel, Md., leaving three dead and causing millions of dollars of damage.

See also Major Earthquakes Around the World 2001

See also Recent Volcanic Activity