2011 SURPASSES 2005 WITH RECORD LOSSES FROM NATURAL DISASTERS (Source: Munich RE) Walter Hays, Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction, Vienna, Virginia, USA

2011

The global bill in 2011 was $265 billion, well above the previous record of $220 billion in 2005, and mainly due to floods in Australia and the earthquake/tsunami in Japan.

NOTABLE DISASTERS IN 2011 FLOODS IN AUSTRALIA EARTHQUAKE/TSUNAMI IN JAPAN WILDFIRES IN ARIZONA AND TEXAS HURRICANE IRENE AND TROPIAL STORM LEE FLOODS ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER SUPER TORNADO OUTBREAK SOURCES OF ECONOMIC LOSS NEW KNOWLEDGE FOR COMMUNITY DISASTER RISK REDUCTION VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS

2011 started with much of Queensland, Australia, swamped by rain-triggered flooding.

GREAT QUEENSLAND FLOOD INUNDATES 22 TOWNS, DISPLACES 200,000, KILLS 35, AND CAUSES LOSSES OF OVER $7 BILLION IN AUSTRALIA DECEMBER 10 – JANUARY 2011

Catastrophic flooding in Queensland was fed by one of the most intense La Nina weather events in decades.

Munich Re, a multinational that insures insurance companies, calculated that the Australian flooding left $7.3 billion in economic losses.

75 PERCENT OF QUEENSLAND STATE DECLARED A DISASTER ZONE

FLOODING IN BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA: JAN 13, 2011

NEW SOUTH WALES: 45 FLOOD DISASTER ZONES

THEODORE’S HOUSES INUNDATED

THE MARCH 11, 2011 EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI

BEFORE MARCH 11 TH

AFTER MARCH 11 th

TSUNAMI WAVES DEVASTATE SENDAI

TSUNAMI DAMAGE

AERIAL VIEW: THE FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR FACIULITY

THE FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR FACILITY Radiation leaks and threats of partial melt down developed in four of the six reactors as a result of the quake/tsunami.

RADIATION CLOUD AT THE FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR FACIULITY

NO-FLY ZONE ABOUT FUKUSHIMA

HELICOPTERS COLLECT SEA WATER TO DROP ON FUKUSHIMA REACTORS

A RACE AGAINST TIME 140,000 people within a 33 km radius of the plant were told to stay in their houses indefinitely; while the increased risk from radiation stymied search and rescue operations, already out of time in terms of the “golden window,” and slowed humanitarian assistance.

2005

2005’s CONTRIBUTION TO DISASTER LOSSES 28 ATLANTIC TROPICAL STORMS AND HURRICANES HURRICANES KATRINA, RITA, STAN, AND WILMA ERUPTION S: MERAP (INDONESIA); ILAMATEPEC PAKISTAN EARTHQUAKE 13 TYPHOONS: HAITANG, LONGWANG, MATSA, … FLOODS: ROMANIA, AUSTRIA, GERMANY, GUJARAT, … SOURCES OF ECONOMIC LOSS NEW KNOWLEDGE FOR MAKING COMMUNITIES DISASTER RESILIENT PORTUGAL WILDFIRES

The previous record of $220 billion in losses was in 2005, and mainly due to Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan, and Wilma.

THE 2005 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON JUNE 1, NOVEMBER 30, 2005

TROPICAL STORMS-HURRICANES IN 2005 ARLENE BRET CINDY DENNIS EMILY FRANKLIN GERT HARVEY IRENE JOSE KATRINA LEE

TROPICAL STORMS-HURRICANES IN 2005 MARIA NATE OPHELIA PHILIPPE RITA STAN TAMMY VINCE WILMA ALPHA BETA GAMMA DELTA EPSILON ZETA

THE 2005 HURRICANE SEASON BROKE MANY RECORDS  Forecasters exhausted their list of 21 proper names (Arlene, Bret, Cindy and so on) and had to use the Greek alphabet (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta) to name storms for the first time.

TROPICAL STORM EPSILON: NOVEMBER 29

THE 2005 HURRICANE SEASON BROKE MANY RECORDS  In 154 years of record-keeping, 2005 had the most named storms (27), the most hurricanes (13), the largest number of major hurricanes hitting the U.S. (4), and the most Category 5 hurricanes (3).

2005’S HURRICANE SEASON RECORDS  Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest U.S. hurricane since 1928 (more than 1,300 dead, replacing 1992’s Hurricane Andrew as the most expensive hurricane on record ($34.4 billion in insured losses).

THE 2005 HURRICANE SEASON BROKE MANY RECORDS  According to the Insurance Services Organization (ISO), total insured losses from hurricanes reached $47.2 billion in 2005, well above the previous record of $22.9 billion set in 2004 when four hurricanes also made landfall in the U.S.

GULF COAST

HURRICANE KATRINA: AUGUST 28-29, 2005

HURRICANE KATRINA HAD WIDE SPREAD IMPACTS  Hurricane Katrina inflicted the worst damage and societal impacts ever.  Thousands of miles of the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Florida were impacted.  In addition to New Orleans, cities in Mississippi such as Biloxi, Waveland, and Gulfport were adversely impacted.  Thousands were evacuated from Louisiana and dispersed throughout the entire USA, some never to go back home..

HURRICANE KATRINA DEVASTATED NEW ORLEANS  Eighty percent of New Orleans was under water after its levees failed a day after Katrina made landfall, and again one week later as Rita passed through the Gulf enroute to landfall at the Texas-Louisiana border.

HURRICANE KATRINA’S IMPACTS WERE SEEN BY THE WORLD  The world saw unprecedented misery in near real time; They saw:  Families stranded in attics, on roofs and bridges,  Hungry and thirsty refugees stranded in the Superdome and Convention Center after wind and rain penetrated the Superdome’s roof.  Lack of power, water, and sewage services exacerbating and slowing emergency operations at local, state, and Federal levels.

HURRICANE KATRINA’S IMPACTS WERE SEEN BY THE WORLD  Bodies lay on streets for days or floated in the floodwaters.  Eight functioning hospitals were reduced to two.

HURRICANE KATRINA’S IMPACTS WERE LONG LASTING  Hundreds of thousands of people in New Orleans had no livable home to return to, and many never returned.  Thousands of businesses were shut down; many never reopened.  Public schools were closed down 3 months---until November 28th.  Many environmental and health care problems remained unresolved for a long time.

HURRICANE DENNIS

HURRICANE RITA

HURRICANE WILMA

HURRICANE WILMA BROKE RECORDS  Reaching 882 millibars, Hurricane Wilma became the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record in terms of minimum central pressure.  When Wilma’s top sustained winds increased 180 km/hr (105 mi/hr) in 24 hours while moving through the Caribbean, it became the fastest- strengthening storm on record.

WILMA, DENNIS, AND RITA WERE ALSO DEVASTATING Although Wilma, Dennis and Rita, the other hurricanes that hit the USA, were not as deadly or destructive as Katrina, each one exposed community weaknesses: 14-hour traffic jams occurred in Houston and Galveston as residents evacuated ahead of Rita.

WILMA, DENNIS, AND RITA WERE ALSO DEVASTATING  Wilma devastated Cancun and stranded 30,000 tourists, before flooding Havana, Cuba, and eventually knocking out power for days for more than 6 million people in Florida on Oct. 24.

RECOVERY FROM 2005 HURRICANE SEASON Congress approved $62 billion, mostly for short-term relief aid. Estimates put the cost of rebuilding at $200 billion, or more, over a ten-year period. The president ordered a review of disaster plans for major metropolitan areas.