Taking the cake for the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded the 1970 Bhola Cyclone hit East Pakistan (Bangladesh today) and India's West Bengal on November 12, 1970. While the exact death toll is unknown it is estimated that 300,000-500,000 people perished in the aftermath of this storm, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters recent history.
This cyclone was not extremely large, reaching strengths equivalent of a Category 3 Hurricane. The killing power of this storm was almost completely attributed to the cyclone's surge which flooded most of the low lying islands in the Ganges Delta, literally wiping villages and crops off the face of the earth.
