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Earlier this year I said I had a feeling this was going to be a busy year for emergency managers. I was not wrong and here are some current numbers to prove my hunch:
U.S. 2011 billion-dollar disasters. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has recalculated the number of weather disasters in the United States which passed the billion dollar mark; NOAA added two disasters, pushing the 2011 tally to twelve billion-dollars-or-more disasters; these disasters caused more than 1,000 deaths and inflicted damaged estimated at $52 billion. Additionally, FEMA’s disaster declaration total is 98, as of December 7, 2011.
Some additional details of the 12 costly events are available on the website Weather.com, which is the weather channel on TV.
On December 10, I found two more feature articles on this topic: (1) article in CNN news online and (2) an article in Scientific American.
Related articles
- NOAA Chief: 2011 Weather Was ‘Harbinger of Things to Come’ (scientificamerican.com)
Recovery Diva 
Good point. It is not as easy to get international numbers. Usually the major reinsurance companies do summaries and analyses, but probably not until a few months into 2012.
Claire
Have the international numbers been tallied? Have there been a record number of global disasters as well?