Catastrophic natural disasters in 2011 – the troubling trend

Jul
2011

You may not have noticed, but the accumulation of bad news stories from around the globe has already made 2011 the worst year of the 21^st century for natural disasters – and we have over 5 months to go before year-end!

Is the trend getting significantly worse – or is this year an anomaly?

Consider: for the first half of 2011, the global total of economic losses from natural sources exceeds $265 billion. The next worst year was 2005 at $220 billion – for the whole year! (Remember Hurricane Katrina and her 2 ugly sisters, Rita and Wilma?)

Closer to home, Canada’s second-worst natural disaster occurred this year when Slave Lake, Alberta was devastated by wildfire in May.

And here’s the concern about the 2011 events – statistically for the century so far, the second half of the year is normally much worse than the first, primarily due to hurricane season on the American eastern seaboard.

And it is projected that the U.S. hurricane season could be the tipping point to higher property insurance rates around the world.

The 5 largest 2011 global natural disasters so far:

#1 – Japan Earthquake and Tsunami – March 11, 2011

Insured Loss: $30B

Economic Loss: $210B

Fatalities: 15,500

#2 – New Zealand Earthquake in Christchurch – February 22, 2011

Insured Loss: >$10B

Economic Losses: $20B

Fatalities: 181

#3 – US Storms and Tornados – April 2011

Insured Loss: $5.05B