Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 3.2
The ten most costly catastrophes in the United States
Event
Cost (billions)
Hurricane Katrina, August 2005
$100
Terrorism: World Trade Center/Pentagon, September 2001
30
Hurricane Wilma, October 2005
29.1
Hurricane Andrew, August 1992
26.5
Northridge earthquake, California, January 1994
20
Hurricane Charlie, August 2004
13
Hurricane Ivan, September,2004
13
Hurricane Frances, September 2004
12
Hurricane Rita, September 2005
11.3
Hurricane Hugo, September 1989
7
Source: Wikipedia (2009).
29 Florida's population fell by 58,000
from April 2008 to April 2009, the fi rst decline in more than fi fty years.
Some major insurers are refusing to issue new policies in hurricane-prone
areas, and some existing policies are not being renewed, a change that
has affected hundreds of thousands of policy holders.
More than half of all Americans live within 50 miles of the coast, and
the percentage has been increasing. The lure of open water is apparently
too strong for many people to resist. Many additional risk takers who
wish to locate along the coast cannot do so: they cannot get mortgages
because lenders require that mortgaged homes have insurance.
Insurance companies, the world's most serious futurists, are in a panic
over the increasing costs of hurricane damage. Although rate hikes and
discontinued policies are nothing new in hurricane-battered Florida and
the Gulf Coast, the problems are now affecting property owners in the
Northeast and mid-Atlantic states. Allstate, which for some years has
refused to write home owners' policies in Florida, Louisiana, and coastal
Texas, has stopped issuing new policies in New Jersey, Connecticut,
Delaware, coastal Maryland, coastal Virginia, and New York City. A
host of other insurers are dropping coverage, refusing to insure proper-
ties, or limiting coverage along the Atlantic coast from Maine to the
Carolinas.
Whether global warming is at work or not, damage costs will increase
because of rising property values and development. For example, a direct
hit on Miami by Hurricane Andrew would cost twice as much today
$2,066 in 2006 and $4,700 in 2007.
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