It has been estimated that the damage Hurricane Harvey has inflicted on Houston will cost billions upon billions of dollars.
Harvey is the 10th weather and climate disaster event in the U.S. to cause at least a billion dollars damage in 2017, the National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI) reports.
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The previous nine events include the California flooding in February, the southeast freeze in March and several tornado outbreaks throughout the spring. Overall, there were two flooding events, one freeze event, and six severe storm events before Hurricane Harvey.
Those nine events left 57 dead while the death toll from Harvey was at 45 as of the writing of this article.
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“From January to June, the U.S. experienced nine billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, only trailing 2011 and 2016 that had 10 events,” the NCEI reported in early July. This year would rank as the third worst since the organization started collecting data, falling behind 2011 and 2016.
While it might seem like 10 billion-dollar disasters would seem costly, the yearly average since 2010 is 10.6.
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The costliest weather event to hit the U.S. was Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It caused US$160 billion in damage in 2017 dollars (adjusted for inflation), a report from Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction (CDMRR) said.
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It is believed Hurricane Harvey, which has struck the fourth largest U.S. city (Houston), has created upwards of US$267 billion worth of infrastructure, government equipment, cars, commercial and industrial facilities and private homes damage, the CDMRR estimates.
U.S. 2017 Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters (NCEI)
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