2008 'Huge year for natural disasters'

[Dover]

Huge year for natural disasters'

The Sichuan quake was one of several disasters to strike Asia in 2008
The past year has been one of the most devastating ever in terms of natural disasters, one of the world's biggest re-insurance companies has said.

Munich Re said the impact of the disasters was greater than in 2007 in both human and economic terms.

The company suggested climate change was boosting the destructive power of disasters like hurricanes and flooding.

It has called for stricter curbs on emissions to prevent further uncontrollable weather scenarios.

Although there were fewer "loss-producing events" in 2008 than in the previous year, the impact of natural disasters was higher, said Munich Re in its annual assessment.

More than 220,000 people died in events like cyclones, earthquakes and flooding, the most since 2004, the year of the Asian tsunami.

Meanwhile, overall global losses totalled about $200bn (£137bn), with uninsured losses totalling $45bn, about 50% more than in 2007...cont'd

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7803624.stm

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2008 a Devastating Year for Natural Disasters

A bombardment of tropical cyclones and the earthquake that struck China in May made 2008 one of the most devastating in terms of human and financial losses, with more than 220,000 dead and $200 billion in damages, according to one of the world's top reinsurers.

Although this year saw fewer natural disasters than 2007, the acute devastation of individual events pushed 2008 to No. 3 in the rankings of most expensive disaster years on record, according to a report by Munich Re Group.

This year sits behind only 2005 ($232 billion), with its record number of Atlantic hurricanes, including the devastating Hurricane Katrina, and 1995, the year of the earthquake in Kobe, Japan. (Munich Re's figures are adjusted for inflation.)

The year with the most deaths due to natural disasters between 1991 and 2005 was 2004, the year that the tsunami struck Southeast Asia, according to United Nations statistics. The tsunami killed more than 225,000 people.

The costliest disaster this year in terms of financial impacts was the 8.5 magnitude Sichuan earthquake and its aftershocks, which Munich Re said caused an estimated $85 billion in damages. The quake left some 5 million homeless, injured hundreds of thousands, and killed 70,000 people, with about 18,000 still missing.

The most devastating disaster in terms of loss of life was Cyclone Nargis, which slammed into Myanmar's low-lying Irrawaddy Delta in May. The cyclone killed an estimated 135,000 people, with 85,000 deaths confirmed and 54,000 still missing, Munich Re reported...cont'd

http://www.livescience.com/environment/081229-2008-natural-disasters.html