February 18, 2009
Holly Deyo

There is an unmistakable upward trend both in the number of events as well as the cost.

The U.S. has sustained 90 weather-caused disasters over the past 29 years where costs and damages reached or exceeded $1 billion. Equalized to the 2007 dollar, these 90 events total over $700 BILLION.

Disasters began to escalate with the massive ‘97-98 El Niño. Roughly 2/3 of these 90 disasters struck from that point on. 2005 was the worst year when over 2000 people lost their lives and disasters pegged $170 billion. See this map of where these 90 disasters hit. There is a distinct pattern to the disasters, which should tell you where not to live! At least the odds are with you elsewhere.

These are some of the "memorable" events:

2008 – Midwest Floods; Hurricanes Ike, Gustav, Dolly; Wildfires; Midwest & Southeast Tornadoes

2005 – Hurricanes Wilma, Rita, Katrina, Dennis; Midwest Drought

2004 – Hurricanes Jeanne, Ivan, Frances, Charley

2002 – Widespread Drought; Western Fires; Tornadoes in 17 states including NY

1998 – CA Freeze, TX Floods, NE Ice; Hurricanes Georges, Bonnie; Severe Storms/Hail; Southern Drought and Heat

1996 – Hurricanes Fran; Plains Severe Drought; Pacific NW Severe Floods; Northeast and Eastern Blizzard/Floods

1995 – Hurricanes Opal, Marilyn; TX-OK-LA-MS-CA Severe Storms/Floods

1993 – CA Fires; Midwest Flood; SE Drought/Heatwave; “Storm/Blizzard of Century"

1992 – Nor'easter; Hurricanes Iniki, Andrew

1988 – Drought/Heatwave – Central / Eastern U.S.

1980 – Drought/Heatwave – Central / Eastern U.S.