The President has declared the earthquake a national catastrophe, and is sending immediate financial aid to the region.
My speech was a total catastrophe; I forgot my notes, and the microphone wouldn't work.
The oil spill is a catastrophe for this sensitive marine
environment.
War will be a catastrophe for the world, now that nuclear arms are so common.
The volcano caused catastrophic damage to the villages nearby.
Our shortage of rainfall this year is catastrophic for local farms.
Housing prices in the town dropped
catastrophically after the factory closed down.
R. W. Apple once observed that the sense of national catastrophe is inevitably heightened in a television age, when the whole country participates in it.
Ernest Dimnet once remarked that the happiness of most people we know is not ruined by
great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things.
The downturn in the Korean economy has been a catastrophe for ESL schools here because they depended so much on their Korean clientele.
H. G. Wells once stated that human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
The eruption of the volcanic island of Krakatoa was a catastrophe which killed 36,000 people, and caused oceanic and atmospheric changes over a period of many years.
Our planet is currently experiencing a catastrophic rate of species extinction.
Scientists believe that at various times in the distant past huge volumes of water were released on Mars, resulting in catastrophic flooding.
A recent study shows that the Arctic ice-cap is melting at an unprecedented rate, with potentially catastrophic consequences.
Discussion question: Talk about a natural catastrophe which has occurred in your country.