Oh Snap!: Man (Woman and Child) vs. Nature 2011

By Heather Murphy

2011 was filled with peculiar weather, devastating natural disasters, and other dramatic reminders that no matter how smart our phones, Mother Earth still has us beat. After looking through thousands of Getty photos of this grand but one-sided contest between man and nature, here are some of the best from the past twelve months.

January, Flash Floods in Brazil

2011 started off with a deadly bang, as a flash floods outside Rio in early January became the deadliest weather event in Brazil’s history, killing about 900 people. Here, a man grabs a wheelchair amid the wreckage in his house in Teresopolis, some 100 km from downtown Rio de Janeiro on January 13, 2011.

Vanderlei Almedia/AFP/Getty Images.
February, Volcano Eruption in Japan

Mount Shinmoedake on Japan's southern island of Kyushu erupted for the first time in 52 years in early February.

Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images.
February, Earthquake in New Zealand

Cyclists commute down a damaged road beside the Avon River on Feb. 26, 2011, after a 6.3 earthquake devastated Christchurch.

Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty Images.
Early March, Tsunami Hits Japan

Tsunami waves hit the coast of Minamisoma in Fukushima prefecture on March 11, 2011, 10 days after a massive earthquake and tsunami struck the country's northeast coast.

Adatsugu Tomizawa /AFP/Getty Images.
Early March, Watching for Tsunami in Mexico

The tsunami in Japan raised fears on coastlines around the world. In Acapulco, a man photographs a shoal of sardines, an ominous sign alerting the possibility of a tsunami, since those fish seldom approach the shoreline.

Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images.
Late March, Salvaging the Remains in Japan

Sigo Hatareyama works to clean out what is left of his house on March 21, 2011, in Kesennuma, Japan.

Chris McGrath/Getty Images.
April, Storms in the Midwest

Two women search through a relative's destroyed home on April 30, 2011 in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Alabama, the hardest hit of six states, saw about 300 deaths as a result of the storms.

Tom Pennington/Getty Images.
May, Tornado in Joplin

The tornado that ripped through the Missouri city of around 50,000 people killed at least 122, becoming the deadliest single tornado in the U.S. in 60 years.

Benjamin Krain/Getty Images.
May, Volcanic Eruption in Iceland

A cloud of smoke and ash is seen over the Grimsvoetn volcano on Iceland on May 21, 2011.

STR/AFP/Getty Images.
May, Volcanic Eruption in Chile

Puyehue volcano erupted for the first time in half a century on June 4, 2011, prompting evacuations for 3,500 people as it spewed a cloud of ash that reached Argentina.

Claudio Santana/AFP/Getty Images.
July, Volcanic Eruption in Indonesia

The Indonesian volcano erupted late July 14, spewing rocks, lava, and ash hundreds of meters into the air.

Tengku/AFP/Getty Images.
July, Algae Takeover in China

A Chinese man swims along the algae-filled coastline of Qingdao, in eastern China's Shandong province on July 17, 2011.

STR/AFP/Getty Images.
August, Drought in Somalia

A Somali girl carries a pot over her head as she and others wait in line to receive their food ration at a distribution point in Mogadishu on Aug. 18, 2011. Some 12 million people in parts of Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda and Somalia were in danger of starvation in the wake of the region's worst drought in decades.

Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images
August, Freak Snowstorm in New Zealand

Local farm owner Brendan McDonnell tends to his cattle in Wellington as snow falls across New Zealand on August 16. Snow has hit areas of the country that don’t usually see such precipitation—including Auckland's Central Business District, which had not seen snow for 72 years.

Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
August, Hurricane Irene Hits East Coast

Billy Stinson (left) comforts his daughter Erin Stinson as they sit on the steps where their cottage stood before it was destroyed by Hurricane Irene. Their Nags Head, N.C., home was built in 1903 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. “We were pretending, just for a moment, that the cottage was still behind us and we were just sitting there watching the sunset,” said Erin afterward.

Scott Olson/Getty Images.
September, Massive Wildfire in Texas

Drought and an intense heat wave fueled the Bastrop fire, Texas’s most destructive wildfire on record. Here, a statue of a woman holding a water bucket stands in front of the remnants of a burned-down home on the east side of Lake Bastop on Sept. 6, 2011.

Erich Schlegel/Getty Images
October, Flooding in Thailand

A man sits in deep water inside a pipe from a construction site as rising waters threaten parts of Bangkok on Oct. 29, 2011.

Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
November, More Flooding in Thailand

An aerial view of a flooded district just outside Bangkok on Nov. 7, 2011. More than 9 million people were affected by the worst flooding to hit Thailand in 50 years.

Paula Bronstein/Getty Images.
December, Unusual Fog in China

Paramilitary policemen walk through Tiananmen Square on Dec. 5, 2011 in Beijing as dense fog hits northern and eastern China causing major traffic jams and delaying flights.

Feng Li/Getty Images.
December, Volcano in Ecuador

The Tungurahua Volcano in Runtun, Ecuador, spews incandescent rocks and lava on December 4, 2011.

Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images.
December, Typhoon and Flash Floods Hit Philippines

Boys play on a destroyed bridge at Kapay River, one of the three rivers that overflowed during typhoon Washi, in the southern Philippines on Dec. 26, 2011.

Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images.
December, Cold Front in Brazil

A man crosses Rio Branco Avenue in the rain as a cold front hits Rio de Janeiro on Dec. 26, 2011.

Vanderlei Almeida/AFP/Getty Images

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