Modern Ghost Town, Ordos, China

Natural disasters can also create ghost towns. After being flooded more than 30 times since their town was founded in 1845, residents Pattonsburg, Missouri, had enough after two floods in 1993. With government help, the whole town was rebuilt 3 miles (4.8 km) away.
Ghost towns may also occasionally come into being due to an anticipated natural disaster — for example, the Canadian town Lemieux, Ontario was abandoned in 1991 after soil testing revealed that the community was built on an unstable bed Leda clay. Two years after the last building in Lemieux was demolished, a landslide swept part the former townsite into the South Nation River.
Land contamination can also create a ghost town. This is what happened to Times Beach, a suburb St. Louis, whose residents were exposed to a high level dioxins. Centralia, Pennsylvania was abandoned by many people due to a dangerous underground coal fire.
Ghost towns may also be created when land is expropriated by a government and residents are required to relocate. An excellent example is the village Tyneham in Dorset, England, acquired during World War II to build an artillery range. Another example is when NASA acquired land to build a rocket propulsion testing center. Construction the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi required acquisition a large buffer zone (approximately 34 square miles) because the loud noise and potential dangers associated with testing huge rockets. Communities were abandoned and roads became overgrown with forest flora.