During her last two years in office, President Aquino's administration faced a series of natural disasters and calamities. Among these were the 1990 Luzon earthquake, which left around 1,600 people dead and the 1991 volcanic eruption of what was then thought to be a dormant Mount Pinatubo, which was the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century, killing around 300 people and causing widespread long-term devastation of agricultural lands in Central Luzon. On 1 November 1991 Tropical Storm Thelma (also known as Typhoon Uring) caused massive flooding in Ormoc City, leaving around 5,000 dead in what was then considered to be the deadliest typhoon in Philippine history. On 8 November, Aquino declared all of Leyte a disaster area. On 20 December 1987, the MV Doña Paz sank which Time and others have dubbed as the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster of the 20th century, given the death toll which were initially estimated to be around 1,500 which later grew for at least 3,000, and finally exceeded about 4,300. Aquino described the aftermath as a national tragedy of harrowing proportions...[the Filipino people's] sadness is all the more painful because the tragedy struck with the approach of Christmas.