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• s  extremely harmful; bringing physical or financial ruin
  a catastrophic depression
  catastrophic illness

• Students of the millennium and historians of the bizarre have long been predicting such a catastrophic event in the twilight years of the 20th century, duly noting the rise in .
• Total catastrophic injuries went from 11 in 2005, including one fatality, to five injuries with no fatalities in 2006, according to the report.
• It was a catastrophic fire in the engines.

• ruinous

News & Articles

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• Merion shows its teeth to golf's best
  Par for this U.S. Open course is 140 after two rounds, and only two players are able to better it. ARDMORE, Pa. — Life went on in this leafy Philadelphia suburb Friday, despite near-catastrophic injuries inflicted on the egos of 156 golfers.        
  June 15, 2013 - Los Angeles Times
• Azerbaijan Warns the Human Cost of Armenian Occupation Could Dwarf the Emerging Environmental Disaster
  VIENNA, June 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Azerbaijan has warned that the catastrophic failure of a dam that lies in territory occupied by Armenia now poses a far greater threat to the population downstream ...
  June 14, 2013 - PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance
• Philadelphia Schools Superintendent Says 'Doomsday Budget' Forcing 'Catastrophic' Layoffs
  Philadelphia's schools superintendent has called the massive layoffs forced by the district's financial crisis " nothing less than catastrophic." Last week, the district announced that it will lay off 3,783 employees — 676 teachers, 283 counselors, 127 assistant principals , and 1,202 noontime aides, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
  June 12, 2013 - Business Insider

Quotes

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• Barack Obama in Los Angeles Times
  There apparently was a "mix of human and systemic failures that contributed to this potential catastrophic breach of security," Obama said. "We need to learn from this episode and act quickly to fix the flaws in our system."
• Patrick Smith in Guardian Unlimited
  Whatever happened must have happened very fast, which is usually a sign of catastrophic structural failure,said Patrick Smith, a US based airline pilot and aviation commentator. "A plane never takes off into a thunderstorm, no crew or...
• Henry Waxman in Telegraph.co.uk
  Five days before the explosion, BP's drilling engineer called Macondo a 'nightmare well'. BP appears to have made multiple decisions for economic reasons that increased the danger of a catastrophic well failure,they wrote. "Time after...