Americans searched on Google for news on Hurricane Dorian and the fire at Notre Dame cathedral more than any other topic in 2019.
Google has compiled its most-searched topics in 2019 and released the rankings. Hurricane Dorian was the most-searched news topic, followed by the Notre Dame cathedral of Paris.
Dorian made landfall on Sept. 1 in the Bahamas as a Category 5 hurricane. The storm is the second-strongest system ever recorded in the Atlantic in terms of wind speed, reaching speeds of up to 185 mph.
The storm left large swaths of the Bahamas uninhabitable and killed dozens of people. The official death toll rose to 67 by mid-October while 282 people were still missing. The storm caused roughly $3.4 billion worth of damage across the Bahamas.
Dorian skirted the edge of Florida and made landfall in North Carolina. It caused an additional $500 million to $1.6 billion worth of damage in the United States.
The Notre Dame cathedral in Paris suffered extensive damage when a fire ignited in the church’s attic on April 15. The fire quickly spread, fed by thousands of centuries-old dried support beams.
The blaze destroyed the church’s roof, its iconic spire, and left gaping holes in the sanctuary’s ceiling. If not for the work of crews building supports around the church after the fire was extinguished, the whole structure would likely have collapsed.
