Facts and Figures The following are some important and interesting facts and figures having to do with 2008 catastrophe losses: • Although there were fewer “loss-producing” events in 2008 than in the previous year, the impact of natural disasters was higher. • More than 220,000 people died in events like cyclones, earthquakes and flooding, the most since 2004, the year of the Asian tsunami. • Overall global losses totaled about $200 billion, with uninsured losses totaling $45 billion, about 50 percent more than in 2007. • 2008 was the third most expensive year on record, after 1995, when the Kobe earthquake struck Japan; and 2005, the year of Hurricane Katrina in the United States. • The most expensive single event in 2008 was Hurricane Ike, which brought $30 billion in losses. It was one of five major hurricanes in the North Atlantic that year, which saw a total of 16 tropical storms. • The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) figures show that 2008 was the 10th warmest year since reliable records began, meaning that the 10 warmest years on record all occurred in the past 12 years. Source: Munich Re, as reported by BBC News, December 29, 2008. Earthquake U.S. Geological Survey http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/neic National Earthquake Information Center http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqstats.html Flood Federal Emergency Management Agency www.fema.gov U.S. Geological Survey www.usgs.gov Hurricane Federal Emergency Management Agency www.fema.gov National Climatic Data Center www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html Tornado National Weather Service www.nws.noaa.gov Tornado Alley Information www.oar.noaa.gov/spotlite/archive/spot_climatology.html Volcano U.S. Geological Survey http://volcanoes.usgs.gov www.volcanos.com www.volcanoes.com WildFires National Interagency Fire Center www.nifc.gov National Center for Public Policy Research www.nationalcenter.org Disaster PlanningWeb sites 6 ADJUSTINGTODAY. COM A D J U S T I N G T O D A Y
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