Re: Worse than 1938
Posted by 1969 on 10/30/2012, 2:03 pm
Sandy and the Top 20 Normalized US Hurricane Losses

Here is a table showing the top 20 hurricane losses 1900 to 2011, normalized to 2012 dollars. In other words, the figures show an estimate of what the losses would be were historical storms to occur in 2012. The numbers come from ICAT based on an extension of Pielke et al. 2008.

Table

Great Miami  Sep 18,1926  1  180,220,000,000
Galveston  Sep 08,1900  2  105,570,000,000
Galveston  Aug 17,1915  3  84,910,000,000
Katrina  Aug 29,2005          4  84,620,000,000
Andrew  Aug 24,1992          5  64,410,000,000

While it will be some time until we have apples to apples estimates from Sandy, the current estimates of $20 billion would place Sandy at #17 all time out of 242 loss-producng storms 1900 to present (in the top 10%). If the damage gets to $30 billion it would crack the top 10 and (top 5%). Right now it seems unlikely that Sandy will climb any higher on the table. (Note that inland flood damage is not included in the tabulations above.)

In historical context, Sandy sits alongside Carol, Diane and Hazel. One big difference however -- Carol, Diane and Hazel hit the US Atlantic coast within a single 13 month period in 1954-1955.  Imagine that.  





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Worse than 1938 - 1969, 10/29/2012, 9:14 pm
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