NEHRP Clearinghouse
- Title
- Hurricane Warning: The Critical Need for a National Hurricane Research Initiative.
- File
- PB2007110266.pdf
- Source
- January 2007, 40 p.
- Identifying Number(s)
- NSB-06-115
- Abstract
- The United States possesses the most capable research enterprise, the largest economy, and the most sophisticated societal infrastructure in the world, yet it remains notably vulnerable to catastrophic damage and loss of life from natural hazards. Among weather hazards, hurricanes account for over half of the total damage inflicted. Hurricane-induced economic losses have increased steadily in the U.S. during the past 50 years, with estimated annual total losses (in constant 2006 dollars) averaging $1.3 billion from 1949-1989, $10.1 billion from 1990-1995, and $35.8 billion per year during the last 5 years. The 2005 season was exceptionally destructive, with Hurricane Katrina pushing annual damage loss over the $100 billion mark for the first time since records began. Added to this financial cost is the intolerable and unnecessary loss of life associated with hurricanes 196 individuals perished from 1986-1995 and approximately 1,450 were lost in the past 2 years alone. Of course, hurricane impacts are not confined to the U.S.; weather-related disasters worldwide have outnumbered their less predictable, but equally important, geophysical counterparts (e.g., earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes) nine to one during the past decade. To place the Nations vulnerability in perspective, 50 percent of the U.S. population lives within 50 miles of a coastline. The physical infrastructure in coastal regions has grown dramatically over the past few decades and in the late 1990s was worth about $3 trillion in the Gulf and Atlantic regions alone. Trillions of dollars in new seaboard infrastructure investment are expected over the next several decades. As our economy grows and the value of built-infrastructure continues to increase, the economic and societal impacts of hurricanes also can be expected to escalate. Although not all coastal regions are directly vulnerable to hurricanes, impacts from those regions that are affected can have national consequences, for example, via increased fuel prices and displaced citizens. Additionally, even though decaying tropical storms are an important source of fresh water for inland regions, associated flooding occurring hundreds of miles from the coast and days after storm landfall can be astonishingly destructive. Historically, flooding has claimed more lives in the U.S. than any other weather phenomenon and destructive tornadoes frequently accompany hurricanes.
- Keywords
- ; Natural disasters; Hurricanes; Disasters; Economic impact; Hazards; Infrastructure; Losses