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posted by janrinok on Wednesday January 10 2018, @06:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the you-ain't-seen-nothing-yet dept.

Most expensive year on record for US natural disasters

2017 will be remembered as a year of extremes for the U.S. as floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, drought, fires and freezes claimed hundreds of lives and visited economic hardship upon the nation. Recovery from the ravages of three major Atlantic hurricanes making landfall in the U.S. and an extreme and ongoing wildfire season in the West is expected to continue well into the new year.

The US experienced a record year of losses from fires, hurricanes and other weather related disasters in 2017, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa). Total losses amounted to $306bn the agency said, over $90bn more than the previous record set in 2005.

Last year saw 16 separate events with losses exceeding $1bn, including Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Noaa confirmed that 2017 was the third warmest year on record for the US.

Hurricane Harvey produced major flooding as a result of a storm surge and extreme rain. Nearly 800,000 people needed help. Researchers have already shown that climate change increased the likelihood of the observed rainfall by a factor of at least 3.5. Noaa says the total costs of the Harvey event were $125bn, which is second only to Hurricane Katrina in terms of costs over the 38 years the record has been maintained. Hurricane Irma was a Category 5 storm for the longest period on record. Rain gauges in Nederland, Texas, recorded 1,539mm, the largest ever recorded for a single event in the mainland US. Hurricanes Irma and Maria cost $50bn and $90bn respectively.

Most expensive year on record for US natural disasters

[Also Covered By]: U.S. Spent a Record $306 Billion on Natural Disasters in 2017

2017 most expensive year because of climate change

According to U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, drought, fires and freezes claimed hundreds of lives and visited economic hardship upon the United States in 2017. Price tag? 306 billion USD. The article has a cute little graph of the major (> 1 billion USD) disasters.

Drill baby drill? Business as usual?


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  • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday January 10 2018, @06:23PM (10 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Wednesday January 10 2018, @06:23PM (#620552) Journal

    But much of the cost is from simple exploitation, corruption, and fraud, and mostly mismanagement of resources and lack of preventative measures (I suppose that is a result of the above mentioned corruption and fraud, turtles all the way down). Seems easier to do now. So many opportunities...

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday January 10 2018, @06:54PM (8 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Wednesday January 10 2018, @06:54PM (#620566) Journal

    Yes, lets all trot out the Greed rant, by all means. It helps the discussion enormously, and of course this was never a factor in the glorious past.
    . (snort).

    The whole "worst year ever" is always going to be true as long as there is inflation, and there will always be inflation until there is a major recession.

    So every year destroying and rebuilding the same house would cost more.

    These stories sometimes try to adjust for inflation, but often such as this story, they just gloss over that, as well as the fact that you can't build the same house anymore, and you can't even dispose of the destroyed one in the same way anymore, because building codes and waste management rules constantly get more stringent.

    This story has been run every year since I can remember.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday January 10 2018, @07:15PM (3 children)

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Wednesday January 10 2018, @07:15PM (#620577) Homepage Journal

      Every year they said it was the warmest year. But 2017 wasn't the warmest. We stopped that global warming. In less than a year, nobody thought we could do it so fast. And our economy grew TREMENDOUSLY too. Especially our oil & gas industries.

      • (Score: 3, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday January 10 2018, @08:09PM (1 child)

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Wednesday January 10 2018, @08:09PM (#620602) Journal

        I know it's confusing, Mr. President, but the United States != The Globe.

        2017 was 3rd warmest year on record for U.S. [noaa.gov]

        • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday January 11 2018, @01:55AM

          by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Thursday January 11 2018, @01:55AM (#620757) Homepage Journal

          Global means it's everywhere. It's not everywhere. I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris. And Pittsburgh is doing great!

      • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @10:22PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @10:22PM (#620678)

        The person (eyes TMB) that keeps modding this flamebait has no sense of humor.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by NewNic on Wednesday January 10 2018, @07:54PM

      by NewNic (6420) on Wednesday January 10 2018, @07:54PM (#620597) Journal

      .. and of course, it has nothing to do with all the development that has taken place in known floodplains in and around Houston.

      Trump announced more federal dollars will go towards the Federal Flood Insurance program, thus subsidizing development of floodplains. This isn't anything new. We need the political will to stop these insane subsidies.

      --
      lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
    • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday January 11 2018, @12:22AM (1 child)

      by fustakrakich (6150) on Thursday January 11 2018, @12:22AM (#620733) Journal

      of course this was never a factor in the glorious past.

      Of course it was. What are you talking about? It's common practice rip people off after a disaster. And building codes remain deficient for a reason. Is it not trivial to deduce why that is where cutting corners to save a penny is the prime directive? Sorry if this ruins your day, but quid pro quo is the norm, and it was in the *glorious past* also. If you prefer not to accept that, then don't. But if you want to know the root cause, there it is. Most "disasters" don't have to be one, they are preventable. Hurricanes especially, you board up your windows and stock up on beer and gasoline to keep the home theater powered up, and next time think about maybe burying all those damn wires.

      --
      La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday January 11 2018, @02:05AM

        by frojack (1554) on Thursday January 11 2018, @02:05AM (#620761) Journal

        Of course it was.

        Little sarcasm impaired tonight are we fustakrakich ?

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday January 11 2018, @01:35AM

      by Bot (3902) on Thursday January 11 2018, @01:35AM (#620754) Journal

      Corruption is the result of unchallenged control, and increases more than inflation.

      I agree this is derailing the thread. But, the summary talked about expenses. So there are more possibilities than the obvious record expenses => record disasters => too little prevention => THANKS TRUMP => hey but also Obama => yeah but what about Bushes

      --
      Account abandoned.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @10:13PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @10:13PM (#620672)

    Or you know, we build more stuff each year, so when a storm comes through, more things get destroyed.