5 Major City Of The World That Might Disappear In The Near Future

If you happen to be living in one of the next cities you might consider moving, because you’re most likely to become a homeless or better said cityless in the near future, and the bad thing about it is that there’s not really something 100% that can be done to overcome these disasters.

Whoa.. wait what do you mean?

I mean that any one of these 5 major city will disappear in the near future and there’s not much you can do about it except moving to another city. That’s actually the smartest and safest decision you can do. Without further ado let’s find out what cities are going to be devastated in the next, let’s say, 50 years:

#5. San Francisco, USA — Earthquake

Back in 2001, before 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced a short list of the three most likely disasters to hit America over the coming years. One was a terrorist attack on New York, another was a hurricane in New Orleans and the third was an earthquake in San Francisco. Note that this was shortly before two of those things actually goddamn happened.

Withholding speculation as to whether FEMA are in fact wizards, that’s a pretty “oh shit” moment right there if you live in San Francisco. It also emphasizes the fact that the continued existence of San Francisco is a testament to mankind’s ongoing desire to engage in a staring contest against horrible catastrophe.

And let’s be clear, this isn’t some sensationalist scare tactic — at some point, an earthquake is going to devastate the city. The United States Geological Survey says that the chances of a quake of at least 6.7 on the Richter scale hitting San Fran in the next 30 years sits at a cozy 99 percent.

And there is nothing we can do about it. It happened in 1906, and in 1989 it gave everyone a preview of what was coming.

#4. Venice, Italy — Sinking

Likely the only things you know about Venice is that it has water in the streets, that people get around in gondolas and that it is all very romantic. There’s a good chance you’ve never asked yourself why it has water in the streets, and in fact you might think that they did that on purpose, just for the tourists.

The reality is that the city is sinking into the Mediterranean Sea at a horrifying rate.

#3. Seattle, USA — Earthquake

Yes, an earthquake. In Seattle. The coffee-soaked home of Frasier isn’t exactly on the edge of its seat waiting for the ground to start shaking, but maybe it should be — it’s looking down the barrel of what could be one of the worst earthquakes in history.

The state of Washington was last hit by an earthquake in 2001, and while no deaths were recorded, nature was just getting started. Some science people say that there is an 80 percent chance within the next 50 years that a massive fault off the shore of the Pacific Northwest is going to break apart and trigger what they are unnervingly calling a “megaquake.”

The fault, which could be the biggest in the world, has started building up strain, which is the earthquake equivalent of smoke billowing from the top of a volcano, and scientists have been scrambling to find some way to get the residents of Seattle and the surrounding areas to give a damn.

Here’s a computer simulation of the devastation, put together by the Washington State Department of Transportation:

That’s simulating a 7.0 quake. The fault line could produce a 9.0 — as powerful as the one that just devastated Japan.

#2. Goma, DRC — Volcano/Limnic Eruption

With a population of about 500,000 people, Goma, a major city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is about the size of Kansas City. However, there are a few key differences — unlike Goma, Kansas City does not currently sit right next to an active volcano.

To be fair, the volcano is 18 kilometers away, but since the lava can only flow in one of two directions, it has a 50-50 chance of striking the city, which reduces the fate of the African population to a coin flip every time the volcano starts huffing smoke. The last time it happened, in 2002, Goma lost the coin toss and a fifth of the city was drenched in liquid rock.

But even if the residents do evolve lava-resistant skin, they still live in the Great Rift Valley, which means there is another disaster lurking that can team up with the volcano to wipe out the city, like a coalition of supervillains.

#1. Dhaka, Bangladesh — Almost Everything

Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is the ninth largest city in the world, and the single most densely populated. It also has basically been under slow demolition for over 100 years.

Also known as God’s batting cage, Dhaka has to deal with annual monsoons (which bring devastating floods) and they see a cyclone (a smaller kind of hurricane) basically every year. If you’re frustrated by living in a city that ruins one picnic a year, you really need to visit Dhaka to get some perspective.

But the hits just keep coming. In 1989, a tornado devastated the city. That’s no surprise because Bangladesh is the most tornado-prone place in the world behind North America. And did somebody say earthquakes? They have those, too. Living in Dhaka is basically living in a Roland Emmerich movie every single day. Seriously, we’re waiting to hear reports of comet bombardment or flat-out alien invasion.

Oh wait, did we forget to mention the tsunami threat? Really, the most important thing we have to learn from Dhaka is how the hell it still exists.

In conclusion…

We have no good advice to give you, because you would probably yell out loud: bulls**t. Well for your sake let’s just hope that all the above statistics and predictions are wrong… but what if they are true?

Source: cracked.com

Tags: devastation goma major cities san francisco earthquake seatle earthquake venice sinking volcano eruption