Disasters 2011

Last night I quickly put together a post about casualty losses after reading the Twitter posts from several friends and acquaintances. In my inbox this morning, I found an e-mail from the Global Conference on Disaster Management. Usually this would be deleted with the other conference notices that I’m not interested in attending. However, the topicality and the statistics made this something I wanted to read and to share.

We have had nine disasters this year that have resulted in over $1 billion in damages each. Irene will make it 10. From their e-mail:

Pre-Irene, economic damage from natural disasters in the U.S. exceeded $35 billion this year, according to a National Climatic Data Center report released in August 2011. Those disasters were:

• Upper Midwest flooding (summer): At least $2 billion of damage as of mid-August
• Mississippi River flooding (spring and summer): $2 billion to $4 billion in damage
• Drought, heat wave and wildfires in the Southern Plains and Southwest (spring and summer): Over $5 billion in damage
• Tornadoes (May 22-27): At least $7 billion in damage in central and southern states, including the tornado that struck Joplin, Mo., killing 141
• Tornados (April 25-30): At least $9 billion in damage in central and southern states
• Tornadoes (April 14-16): More than $2 billion in damage in central and southern states
• Tornadoes (April 8-11): Losses exceeding $2.2 billion in central and southern states
• Tornadoes (April 4-5): More than $2.3 billion in damage in central and southern states
• Groundhog Day Blizzard: $2 billion in damage after a massive winter storm dumped snow across the central, eastern and northeastern sections of the country

Thanks to the Global Conference on Disaster Management for their timely info. (Link to their conference website.)