& found the following hurricane stats under their "information" linkHurricanesA helpful metric in analyzing the economic impact of hurricanes is normalization, which provides an estimate of the damage that would occur if storms from the past made landfall under another years societal conditions. Normalization methods use changes in inflation and wealth at the national level and changes in population and housing units at the coastal county level. If the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 (a Category 4 storm) were to have made landfall in the same spot in 2005, it would be the costliest hurricane on record, amounting $140-157 billion (in2005 dollars) in damages. It would be nearly twice as destructive as Hurricane Katrina. If the Galveston Hurricanes of 1900 and 1915 (both Category 4) were to have made landfall in 2005, they would be the third and fourth most destructive hurricanes, resulting in damages of $72-78 billion and $57-62 billion (in 2005 dollars), respectively. The fifth costliest hurricane under 2005 normalization would be Andrew, creating $54-58 billion (in 2005 dollars) in damages. Coastal populations in the U.S. continue to grow, thereby increasing the amount of personal wealth that is vulnerable to hurricane damage. This migration has already led to a doubling of losses every 10 years. This suggests that a storm like the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 could result in $500 billion (in 2005 dollars) in damages as soon as the 2020s. Average annual normalized hurricane damage from 1900-2005 was $10 billion. The annual likelihood of a $10 billion hurricane event (with $5 billion in insured losses) during that period was approximately 25 percent, while the annual likelihood of a hurricane event exceeding $50 billion (with $25 billion in insured losses) was approximately 5 percent (all values in 2005 dollars). Source: Pielke, Jr., R. A., Gratz, J., Landsea, C. W., Collins, D., Saunders, M. A., and R. Musulin. (2008, February). Normalized Hurricane Damages in the United States: 1900-2005. Natural Hazards Review, 9(1). Available at: http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/admin/publication_files/resource-2476-2008.02.pdf Hurricane Katrina destroyed 350,000 homes, which was more than 12 times the number destroyed by any previous natural disaster in the nations history. Source: National Association of Home Builders. (2005). Rebuilding Katrina-Destroyed Homes at Least a Year Away. Nation's Building News. Available at: http://www.nbnnews.com/NBN/issues/2005-10-10/Front+Page/index.html |