The following article by Joanna Purpich was posted on the Daily Beast website December 18, 2017:
Donald Trump can deny global warming all he wants, but the price can’t be ignored after 2017’s supercharged hurricanes and wildfires wreaked havoc from coast to coast.
After a year of unprecedented fires and floods, natural disasters exacerbated by climate change will cost the United States more than $200 billion.
Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria were among the most expensive hurricanes in U.S. history, according to the disaster tracking group Enki Holdings. Combined with a severe and unusually long wildfire season, the government will need to pay at least $216 billion in disaster relief, more than the annual gross domestic product of Portugal.
The disaster relief bill passed by Congress this fall only provides $36.5 billion to be split between both flood damage and wildfire fighting.
The vast majority of costs from natural disasters came from this year’s hurricane season, which caused an estimated $206.6 billion in damage, the most expensive season on record according to a report released by Enki that used a computer simulator along with economic and infrastructure data to estimate the costs of every hurricane since 1871.
While 2005’s Hurricane Katrina still ranks as the costliest hurricane to hit the U.S. at $118 billion, Harvey which brought 50 inches of rainfall to the Gulf Coast caused $92 billion in damage, while Irma and Maria cost $59 billion and $42 billion, according to the study.
Enki Director Chuck Watson said that the study’s estimates only take into account direct damage from the storms, whereas numbers from other sources might include the costs of things like subway fortification in the case of Sandy and other preventative measures built into the price of recovery. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott put the costs of Harvey between $150 billion and $180 billion during an interview with Fox News, while Puerto Rico’s Gov. Ricardo Rosello asked Congress for $94 billion in November.
Wildfires that burned through parts of California, Oregon, and Montana also contributed to the vast price of natural disasters. More than $10 billion went toward costs related to wildfires in those three states alone.
“The government will need to pay at least $216 billion in disaster relief, more than the annual gross domestic product of Portugal.”
View the post here.