After several days of significant rain, it now appears that conditions are right for a repeat of the flood of 2006. There is a large storm cell bearing down on us, tracking to the northeast and stretching all the way to Alabama. It will be interesting (in the sense of the Chinese curse) whether we will see history repeat itself, and whether the local municipalities will be better prepared.
Naturally, this gave me the idea of looking into the history of natural disasters and the applicability of demographic and vital records to understanding the effects. One genealogical site with a specific focus on disasters is on Cyndi's List under Disasters: Natural and Man Made. In some cases the information for historical disasters includes specific information regarding disaster-related deaths, such as with the failure of the Austin Dam. In situations where definitive mortality lists are not available, methods such as those described by Sattenspiel and Stoops combined with sites such as findagrave.com (thanks, Erin) can be employed to establish what demographic impact occurs from historical natural disasters.
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