Natural disasters set records around the world in 2017 - these were the worst

Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria swept through the Atlantic in August and September, leaving a trail of useless power lines, drowned homes, and deadly destruction in their wake.

The National Hurricane Center called it an "extremely active" year for hurricanes: at least seven storms had wind speeds upwards of 74 miles per hour.

About a third of Puerto Rican residents are still without power three months after Hurricane Maria touched down on the island. Maria alone is projected to cost $95 billion in damage.

And while the official death toll in Puerto Rico stands at 64 dead, the governor there is calling for a review of the numbers, after The New York Times reported that unusually high death counts after the storm were not included in the official numbers, and the actual death toll may be over 1,000 people.

At least 82 people died when Harvey hit land. Most of them perished while trying to escape the floodwaters.

The watery problem was only made worse when a chemical plant lost power, and the warming combustibles went up in flames in multiple explosions. Thick black smoke wafted up from the chemical fires that broke out at the Arkema SA plant in Crosby, Texas.

Police officers, fire fighters, and emergency workers maintained a 1.5-mile evacuation perimeter around the plant, and are now suing the French chemical giant for $1 million. Several had to be taken to the hospital and treated for smoke inhalation.

The category 5 storm, one of the strongest in Atlantic hurricane history, lashed the southern and western Caribbean before cruising to Cuba and the Bahamas and finally reaching Florida on Sept 10 as a Category 4 storm.

Analysts put property damage estimates from the storm between $42-65 billion.

Orange-growers in Florida are already feeling the effects: an estimated 50% of this year's crop was wiped out, as fruits were knocked off trees and fields flooded.

The September 19 earthquake devastated a region used to a bit of rumbling. Mexico sits at the intersection of three massive tectonic plates and is one of the most seismically active countries in the world.

But even a country with an official earthquake-alert system and new early-warning cell phone apps was no match for this tremor. Among the dead in September: 20 children who were crushed when their school collapsed.

Scientists say that we could see twice as many deadly quakes next year because the Earth's rotation is in a slowdown, which means the equator has shrunk.

Many criticized the Indian government for not focusing more on preventative efforts to help with the annual flooding.

The monsoon rains also crippled people fleeing religious persecution in nearby Myanmar. The extra water made travel perilous for the nearly 400,000 Muslim Rohingya refugees who fled into Bangladesh. The United Nations calls the ongoing situation in Myanmar a 'textbook example' of ethnic cleansing.

Blazes gutted Napa Valley in October, killing more than 40 people in the state's deadliest wildfire streak.

Just weeks later, the hills near Los Angeles broke out in flames. Highways were transformed into a hot hellscape, fueled by dry, hot weather and powerful Santa Ana winds.

Farm fields were devastated: worried avocado growers huddled for an emergency meeting in late December, and lemon growers told the New York Times that the fires will be a "game changer" for business. In Napa, winemakers are still tallying the damage to their burnt vines.

The state spent $505 million fighting wildfires in 2017, more than ten times what it spent on blazes 20 years ago.

But Americans weren't the only ones hit hard by big fires: In January, Chile saw its worst wildfires in the country's history, and Portugal set a new record, too. Longer, more intense wildfire seasons are one of the consequences of climate change.

The earth is parched in northeastern Brazil, where a five-year drought is the worst dry patch on record. Residents told Reuters that their water is dirty, smelly, and undrinkable.

A drought in the Horn of Africa has countries like Somalia on the brink of famine. An unusually high 18,000 cases of cholera were recorded in the first three months of 2017 alone, as clean water sources dried up in the region.

An estimated 360,000 Somali children are severely malnourished and things aren't much better in neighboring Kenya, where 1.3 million people need more food.

Aid workers are urging immediate action to avoid a repeat of the 2011 famine, when more than 250,000 Somalis died.

At least 12 people were killed in China when Typhoon Hato thrust 99 mile-per-hour winds onto the land. Water pumps were damaged and power was cut off on the former Portuguese colony of Macau, and the markets were shuttered in Hong Kong, where trees were uprooted and at least 34 people were injured.

It was the strongest storm of its kind that China has seen since 1968.

Reporters were frustrated by the Chinese government's attempts to halt coverage of the deadly disaster.

Many outlets reported that more than 100 had gone missing and were feared dead, trapped under the rubble, but The New York Times reported that officials only tallied 15 bodies.

Heavy rains and flooding in the region pushed rivers of mud downhill. The government put the official death toll at nearly 500. But many outlets reported higher tallies: Al Jazeera said more than 1,000 were buried and killed in the slides.

Construction on the hillsides of Sierra Leone around the capital of Freetown is unregulated, and many homes weren't ready for the rains.

Another mudslide in Colombia, one of the worst disasters in the country's recent history, killed more than 250 people in April.

Heavy snows fueled the cascades, which tumbled onto some poorly-constructed clay and mud homes.

While avalanches are common in the Hindu Kush mountains, The Guardian put the death toll from this outbreak at more than 135.