A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria, causing over 50,000 deaths and widespread infrastructure damage. When the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey (officially the Republic of Türkiye) and northwest Syria on February 6, 2023, it caused devastating destruction. World Vision swiftly responded to the heightened challenges faced by the survivors, including those made vulnerable by the ongoing conflict in Syria. The catastrophic event worsened conditions in a region already hosting thousands of Syrian refugees. Your immediate and generous support played a crucial role in alleviating the suffering caused by displacement, heightened levels of hunger, malnutrition, and limited access to healthcare and educational support. Your gifts enabled the timely delivery of vital assistance to over 1.8 million people affected in Turkey and Syria within the first year. Hope endured for so many vulnerable children throughout the year in their most difficult times. Children like Baker*, who was orphaned by the destruction, have reclaimed their smiles. For girls like Sahar*, new dreams are beginning to unfold as her nightmares fade away

A massive undersea earthquake caused a tsunami that devastated Japan’s eastern coast and killed over 18,000 people. On March 11, 2011, a magnitude (Mw) 9.1 earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Honshu on the Japan Trench. A tsunami that was generated by the earthquake arrived at the coast within 30 minutes, overtopping seawalls and disabling three nuclear reactors within days. The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami event, often referred to as the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, resulted in over 18,000 dead, including several thousand victims who were never recovered. In Japan, the event resulted in the total destruction of more than 123,000 houses and damage to almost a million more. Ninety-eight percent of the damage was attributed to the tsunami. The costs resulting from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan alone were estimated at $220 billion USD. The damage makes the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami the most expensive natural disaster in history. To learn from the tragedy in Japan, researchers collected extensive data on tsunami wave forces and building performance. This facilitated improvement in tsunami mitigation strategies, such as building codes. Over 6,400 tsunami wave measurements were collected in Japan and the Pacific region.

One of the most devastating hurricanes in U.S. history, Katrina caused 1,800 deaths and massive flooding in New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. It is tied with Hurricane Harvey as being the costliest tropical cyclone in the Atlantic basin. Katrina was the twelfth tropical cyclone, the fifth hurricane, and the third major hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was also the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States, gauged by barometric pressure. Katrina formed on August 23, 2005, with the merger of a tropical wave and the remnants of a tropical depression. After briefly weakening to a tropical storm over south Florida, Katrina entered the Gulf of Mexico on August 26 and rapidly intensified to a Category 5 hurricane before weakening to a Category 3 at its landfall on August 29 near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana.