When I was taking Georgia History in 8th grade, I seem to recall my teacher telling a story about a very prominent coastal town (maybe around the very early 20th century?) that was more or less wiped off the map due to a hurricane.
If anyone has information on that memory I would be interested, but I wanted to ask in a broader sense about similar cases in US history. Have there ever been very culturally or economically notable cities that we lost because of earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, etc?
I'm curious more about larger population centers starting around the beghining of the 19th Century, because I know there were many settlements abandoned in our very early history.
I'm not sure if you would consider it natural (considering the fire was started as a result of mining), but there's Centralia, PA. Also it's not 100% abandoned, a few people still live there.
There are a some places in the United States that might meet your criteria, but nearly all of them aren't exactly abandoned in quite the way you imagine, mostly the just lost influence and population.
Examples: there are quite a few small towns and villages in the pacific northwest and Appalachia that were moved or abandoned due to the construction of dams and reservoirs.
You history teacher might have been referring to Galveston Texas which was a major port city with a thriving economy. It was devestated by a hurricane in 1900, which killed several thousand people and destroyed much of the infrastructure an other buildings. Much of the population and economic activity migrated northwest towards the Houston metro area over the next few decades, especially as Houston grew explosively in the mid-20th century.
No towns of more than 5000 have been abandoned completely. Some, like Galveston, Tex., and New Castle, Del., have lost their early prominence, even if the population numbers are not all that much lower. Some very small towns (Valmeyer, Ill.) have been relocated due to repeated river flooding, or in advance of planned inundation by a new reservoir (Keystone, Okla.). The "town" of Times Beach, Mo.—really just a subdivision—had to be abandoned after a toxic substance was sprayed on many of the roads.