Terror comes to London

It started off as just another busy Thursday morning, with thousands planning the weekend getaway. Little did the people of London know that some of them would end up in hospital beds, or even mortuaries.

Central London came to a standstill while television and radio channels interrupted their scheduled programmes to report live on what was to become the deadliest terrorist attack in the country since the 1988 Lockerbie Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Starting at 8.50am on July 7, three bombs exploded on three different Underground trains within 50 seconds of each other, creating widespread confusion and chaos.

A fourth blast was reported an hour later at 9.47am, this time on a double-decker bus.

The blasts, it was later established, were caused by suicide bombers, all Britons protesting against the country's involvement in the Iraq War. In all, 56 people were killed, including the four suicide bombers, while over 700 were injured.

Another disaster in the news in 2005 was Hurricane Katrina. It lasted barely a week, but ended up going down in history as the costliest hurricane, with damages estimated at $81.2 billion. It was also one of the deadliest ever, claiming 1,836 lives. Another 705 people were reported missing.

Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas on August 23 and crossed southern Florida before strengthening and causing havoc in the Gulf of Mexico. Wind speeds reached 280 kilometres per hour, wiping out anything and everything in the hurricane's path. It finally started to weaken over southeast Louisiana on August 29 and dissipated the next day.

Devastation was reported along the entire Gulf of Mexico coast from central Florida to Texas. Indeed, most of the eastern parts of North America were affected, as well as the Bahamas and Cuba. In the end, Katrina was classified as a Class III hurricane and the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever.

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