The Cost of Catastrophe

THE COST OF CATASTROPHE Natural disasters like hurricanes and floods have caused more than $2.4 trillion in economic and insurance losses in the past decade. Which disasters tend to be the most costly, and how successfully have residents and businesses protected themselves against serious damage? Most Disastrous? Hurricanes are by far the costliest natural disasters from a financial standpoint, probably because they come with damaging winds and heavy rain. Economic and insurance losses by type of disaster in 2012: $84.89 billion $38.32 billion $30.23 billion $33.34 billion $32.4 billion $18.19 billion $15.53 billion $19.13 billion $3.35 billion $2.82 billion $1.22 billion $1.55 billion $590 million $580 million Economic linsured losses losses Economic linsured losses losses Economic linsured losses losses Economic liasured Economic linsured losses Economic linsured Economic linsured losses losses losses losses losses losses losses Hurricanes/ tropical cyclones Flooding Earthquake Winter weather Drought Tornadoes Wildfire How does that compare? Here's a look at combined losses in 2012 compared to the 10-year averages for each: $117.29 billion $80.84 billion $46.74 billion $59 billion $56.51 billion $45.76 billion $36.69 billion $20.68 billion $15.43 billion $32.13 billion $10 billion $5.45 billion $3.41 billion $1.8 billion 10-year average 10-year average 10-year average 10-year average 10-year average 10-year average 10-year average 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 Tornadoes Wildfire Hurricanes/ tropical cyclones Flooding Earthquake Winter weather Drought Worst year ever? Thanks in large part to the catastrophic Japanese earthquake/tsunami, 2011 was by far the costliest year in the past decade. $454.9 billion $256.1 billion $234.8 billion $62 billion $222.9 billion $144.9 billion $87.7 billion $211.2 billion $80.2 billion $75.7 billion $84.4 billion $125.8 billion $101.3 1 billion $20.6 $20.8 billion - billion $45.6 1 billion $27.1 1 billion $50.4 - billion $23.4 billion $43.7 - billion $74 billion $15.3 - billion 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 I Economic losses I Insured losses Are We Ready? AT HOME Only 4 in 10 AT THE OFFICE 6 in 10 U.S. households that have an effective emergency plan in place U.S. businesses without a formal emergency-response plan or off-site data backup 30% of small businesses have been closed at least 24 hours in the past three years because of a natural 57% disaster. of Americans report having emergency supplies set aside in their home. CLOSED Disasters can happen anywhere; here's a look at major disaster, emergency and fire protection declarations by state since 1953: +100 WA MT VT ME 90 ND MN 80 OR NH MA ID SD WI NY RI 70 WY MI PA NJ DE VA UMD 60 NV NE IA ОН IN IL UT 50 CO WV CA KS MO KỸ 40 NC TN 30 AZ OK NM AR SC 19 MS AL GA TX LA HI SOURCES http://www.fema.gov/disasters/grid/state-tribal-government http://www.ready.gov/personal-preparedness-survey-2009 http://www.411sbfacts.com/sbpoll.php?P0LLID=0023 http://na.sage.com/sage-na/newsroom/-/media/site/sagena/documents/surveys/sage%20survey%202012%20backup%20report http://catastropheinsight.aonbenfield.com/Pages/home.aspx http://www.emergency-management-degree.org/