January 2005 Disasters

Updated September 9, 2022 | Infoplease Staff

• Jan. 6, Aiken County, S.C.: a 42-car freight train collided with a smaller train parked on a siding, resulting in a leak of chlorine gas that killed 9 and led to the evacuation of thousands of nearby residents.
• Jan. 7, Bolognina di Crevalcore, Italy: in heavy fog, a passenger train travelling from Palermo to Messina collided with a freight train near Modena, killing 14.
• Jan. 6–13, Calif. to Penn.: in California, a low-pressure system with drenching rains and heavy snows at higher elevations, dumped up to 11 inches of rain and caused a large mudslide in La Conchita, killing 10. Total storm-related deaths reached 25. Los Angeles has had 17 inches of rain since Dec. 27, 2004. The same system piled up more than 4 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevadas on Saturday, stranding an Amtrak train and closing roads and airports. Since the end of December, the Reno-Lake Tahoe area has up to 19 feet of snow, the most since 1916. In Arizona 7 people died from storms and 7 of 15 counties were declared states of emergency. More heavy weather from Indiana to Pittsburgh caused flooding all along the Ohio River where state emergencies have been declared for 56 of 88 counties in Ohio. Three people died in a Pittsburgh tug boat accident and 5 in Ohio from storm-related causes.
• Jan. 8–12, Europe: wild storms battered many European countries, leaving 19 dead. High winds and flooding left people without power and shut down ferries, trains, and highways.
• Jan. 22–23, eastern United States: strong snow storms swept across the Midwest to the Atlantic coast, killing 20 people. A blizzard blanketed parts of the Northeast with snow depths up to 38 in north and south of Boston and the entire island of Nantucket lost power. By the end of January, Boston had the snowiest month on record with a total of 43.1 inches of snow.
• Jan. 25, Wai, India: a stampede at a Hindu procession to the Mandhara Devi shrine killed 250 and injured 200 more. The worst accident at a Hindu festival was in 1954 when 8000 pilgrims died during a stampede.

See also Major Earthquakes Around the World 2005

See also Estimated Deaths from Earthquakes, 2005

See also Recent Volcanic Activity