Are you not entertained?
By the end of this August, the U.S. had already set a new record for the annual number of billion-dollar disasters, which continues a trend toward more and costlier calamities occurring since the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began tracking such data in the 1980s. At that time, a disaster causing at least $1 billion in damage hit the U.S. about every three months; now they happen about every three weeks, says Adam Smith, a NOAA climatologist who helps track the data.
And the costs of such disasters are almost certainly underestimates, underscoring how far behind the U.S. is in preventing and preparing for disasters at a time when climate change is exacerbating many of them. “It’s not a sustainable situation,” Smith says.
Through the end of August, NOAA’s tally showed 23 disasters that were confirmed to have cost at least $1 billion so far this year, which surpasses the record of 22 that was set in 2020. That latter number “shattered” the record of 16 events that happened in 2011 and in 2017, Smith says. He remembers thinking in 2017, “‘This record’s going to last for quite a while,’” only to be proven wrong just three years later.
“Rebuild”? Elsewhere you ninnies!
I can’t help but notice how big most of the rebuilt houses are. I hope they designed weather, flood and fire resistance into the rebuilt homes.
Aye, some of those are huge houses. I like the redone townhouse, though.
I prefer Rachel Ray doing this to watching her cooking and serving food with long unbound hair (ick!).
I have often wondered how these “billion dollar disasters” are calculated. I didn’t know from one number to the next which ones are tallying insured losses vs. total communal losses.
From The Conversation: