Catastrophic mortality in Hawaii: an update.

TWENTY YEARS AGO, a paper in this journal listed 112 disasters that had occurred in Hawai'i prior to 1969, each of which was responsible for the loss of five or more lives. The list included tsunamis, storms, floods, earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, explosions, fires, marine and air disasters (including many to ships and planes traveling to or from the Islands), railroad and motor vehicle accidents, riots, mass murders, and air raids. Together, these 112 events killed approximately 5,575 persons between 1778 and the end of 1968, including 2,500 in the Pearl Harbor attack alone. During the two decades since publication of the original article, the estimated toll has increased appreciably. Nineteen events missed in the 1969 compilation have subsequently come to the author's attention, and additional information has become available on nine of the disasters already described in that report. Thirty-one new disasters have occurred since December 1968 through the end of 1988. Altogether, these 59 events have increased the all-time catastrophic death total by approximately 340—about 214 in events previously missed, 297 in disasters since 1968, and a