Source: Munich RE: The global bill in 2011 was $265 billion, well above the previous record of $220 billion in 2005, and mainly due to floods in Australia and the earthquake/tsunami in Japan. Presentation courtesy of Dr. Walter Hays, Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction

1. NOTABLE DISASTERS IN 2011
FLOODS IN AUSTRALIA
NEW KNOWLEDGE FOR
COMMUNITY DISASTER EARTHQUAKE/TSUNAMI IN
RISK REDUCTION JAPAN
WILDFIRES IN ARIZONA
AND TEXAS
SOURCES OF HURRICANE IRENE AND
TROPIAL STORM LEE
ECONOMIC LOSS
FLOODS ALONG THE
MISSISSIPPI RIVER
SUPER TORNADO
OUTBREAK
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS

2. 2011 SURPASSES 2005 WITH
RECORD LOSSES FROM NATURAL
DISASTERS
(Source: Munich RE)

3. 2011

4. The global bill in 2011 was $265
billion, well above the previous
record of $220 billion in 2005, and
mainly due to floods in Australia and
the earthquake/tsunami in
Japan.

5. NOTABLE DISASTERS IN 2011
FLOODS IN AUSTRALIA
NEW KNOWLEDGE FOR
COMMUNITY DISASTER EARTHQUAKE/TSUNAMI IN
RISK REDUCTION JAPAN
WILDFIRES IN ARIZONA
AND TEXAS
SOURCES OF HURRICANE IRENE AND
TROPIAL STORM LEE
ECONOMIC LOSS
FLOODS ALONG THE
MISSISSIPPI RIVER
SUPER TORNADO
OUTBREAK
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS

6. 2011 started with much of
Queensland, Australia,
swamped by rain-triggered
flooding.

7. GREAT QUEENSLAND FLOOD
INUNDATES 22
TOWNS, DISPLACES
200,000, KILLS 35, AND CAUSES
LOSSES OF OVER $7 BILLION
IN AUSTRALIA
DECEMBER 10 – JANUARY 2011

8. Catastrophic flooding in
Queensland was fed by one
of the most intense La Nina
weather events in decades.

9. Munich Re, a multinational
that insures insurance
companies, calculated that the
Australian flooding left $7.3
billion in economic losses.

10. 75 PERCENT OF
QUEENSLAND STATE
DECLARED A DISASTER
ZONE

11. FLOODING IN BRISBANE,
AUSTRALIA: JAN 13, 2011

12. NEW SOUTH WALES: 45
FLOOD DISASTER ZONES

13. THEODORE’S HOUSES
INUNDATED

14. THE MARCH 11, 2011
EARTHQUAKE AND
TSUNAMI

15. BEFORE MARCH 11TH

16. AFTER MARCH 11th

17. TSUNAMI WAVES DEVASTATE
SENDAI

18. TSUNAMI DAMAGE

19. TSUNAMI DAMAGE

20. TSUNAMI DAMAGE

21. AERIAL VIEW: THE FUKUSHIMA
NUCLEAR FACIULITY

22. THE FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR
FACILITY
Radiation leaks
and threats of
partial melt
down developed
in four of the six
reactors as a
result of the
quake/tsunami.

23. RADIATION CLOUD AT THE
FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR FACIULITY

24. NO-FLY ZONE ABOUT
FUKUSHIMA

25. HELICOPTERS COLLECT SEA WATER
TO DROP ON FUKUSHIMA REACTORS

26. A RACE AGAINST TIME
• 140,000 people within a 33 km
radius of the plant were told to stay
in their houses indefinitely; while
the increased risk from radiation
stymied search and rescue
operations, already out of time in
terms of the “golden window,” and
slowed humanitarian assistance.

27. 2005

28. 2005’s CONTRIBUTION TO DISASTER LOSSES
28 ATLANTIC TROPICAL
STORMS AND HURRICANES
NEW KNOWLEDGE FOR HURRICANES
MAKING COMMUNITIES KATRINA, RITA, STAN, AND
DISASTER RESILIENT WILMA
ERUPTION S: MERAP
(INDONESIA); ILAMATEPEC
SOURCES OF PAKISTAN EARTHQUAKE
ECONOMIC LOSS 13 TYPHOONS:
HAITANG, LONGWANG, MATS
A, …
FLOODS:
ROMANIA, AUSTRIA, GERMAN
Y, GUJARAT, …
PORTUGAL WILDFIRES

29. The previous record of $220
billion in losses was in 2005,
and mainly due to Hurricanes
Dennis, Katrina,
Rita, Stan, and Wilma.

30. THE 2005 ATLANTIC
HURRICANE SEASON
JUNE 1, 2005 -- NOVEMBER
30, 2005

31. TROPICAL STORMS-HURRICANES
IN 2005
• ARLENE • GERT
• BRET • HARVEY
• CINDY • IRENE
• DENNIS • JOSE
• EMILY • KATRINA
• FRANKLIN • LEE

32. TROPICAL STORMS-HURRICANES
IN 2005
• MARIA • TAMMY
• NATE • VINCE
• OPHELIA • WILMA
• ALPHA
• PHILIPPE
• BETA
• RITA • GAMMA
• STAN • DELTA
• EPSILON
• ZETA

33. THE 2005 HURRICANE SEASON
BROKE MANY RECORDS
Forecasters exhausted their list of
21 proper names
(Arlene, Bret, Cindy and so on) and
had to use the Greek alphabet
(Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilo
n, and Zeta) to name storms for
the first time.

34. TROPICAL STORM EPSILON:
NOVEMBER 29

35. THE 2005 HURRICANE SEASON
BROKE MANY RECORDS
In 154 years of record-keeping, 2005
had the most named storms (27), the
most hurricanes (13), the largest
number of major hurricanes hitting the
U.S. (4), and the most Category 5
hurricanes (3).

36. 2005’S HURRICANE SEASON
RECORDS
Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest
U.S. hurricane since 1928 (more than
1,300 dead, replacing 1992’s Hurricane
Andrew as the most expensive
hurricane on record ($34.4 billion in
insured losses).

37. THE 2005 HURRICANE SEASON
BROKE MANY RECORDS
According to the Insurance Services
Organization (ISO), total insured losses
from hurricanes reached $47.2 billion in
2005, well above the previous record of
$22.9 billion set in 2004 when four
hurricanes also made landfall in the
U.S.

38. GULF COAST

39. HURRICANE KATRINA:
AUGUST 28-29, 2005

40. HURRICANE KATRINA HAD
WIDE SPREAD IMPACTS
Hurricane Katrina inflicted the worst damage
and societal impacts ever.
Thousands of miles of the Gulf Coast from
Louisiana to Florida were impacted.
In addition to New Orleans, cities in
Mississippi such as Biloxi, Waveland, and
Gulfport were adversely impacted.
Thousands were evacuated from Louisiana
and dispersed throughout the entire
USA, some never to go back home..

41. HURRICANE KATRINA
DEVASTATED NEW ORLEANS
Eighty percent of New Orleans was
under water after its levees failed a
day after Katrina made landfall, and
again one week later as Rita passed
through the Gulf enroute to landfall
at the Texas-Louisiana border.

42. HURRICANE KATRINA’S IMPACTS
WERE SEEN BY THE WORLD
The world saw unprecedented misery in near
real time; They saw:
Families stranded in attics, on roofs and
bridges,
Hungry and thirsty refugees stranded in the
Superdome and Convention Center after wind
and rain penetrated the Superdome’s roof.
Lack of power, water, and sewage services
exacerbating and slowing emergency
operations at local, state, and Federal levels.

43. HURRICANE KATRINA’S IMPACTS
WERE SEEN BY THE WORLD
Bodies lay on streets for days or
floated in the floodwaters.
Eight functioning hospitals were
reduced to two.

44. HURRICANE KATRINA’S
IMPACTS WERE LONG LASTING
Hundreds of thousands of people in
New Orleans had no livable home to
return to, and many never returned.
Thousands of businesses were shut
down; many never reopened.
Public schools were closed down 3
months---until November 28th.
Many environmental and health care
problems remained unresolved for a
long time.

45. HURRICANE DENNIS

46. HURRICANE RITA

47. HURRICANE WILMA

48. HURRICANE WILMA BROKE
RECORDS
Reaching 882 millibars, Hurricane
Wilma became the most intense
Atlantic hurricane on record in terms of
minimum central pressure.
When Wilma’s top sustained winds
increased 180 km/hr (105 mi/hr) in 24
hours while moving through the
Caribbean, it became the fastest-
strengthening storm on record.

49. WILMA, DENNIS, AND RITA WERE
ALSO DEVASTATING
• Although Wilma, Dennis and
Rita, the other hurricanes that hit
the USA, were not as deadly or
destructive as Katrina, each one
exposed community weaknesses:
• 14-hour traffic jams occurred in
Houston and Galveston as
residents evacuated ahead of
Rita.

50. WILMA, DENNIS, AND RITA WERE
ALSO DEVASTATING
Wilma devastated Cancun
and stranded 30,000
tourists, before flooding
Havana, Cuba, and eventually
knocking out power for days
for more than 6 million people
in Florida on Oct. 24.

51. RECOVERY FROM 2005 HURRICANE
SEASON
• Congress approved $62 billion, mostly
for short-term relief aid.
• Estimates put the cost of rebuilding at
$200 billion, or more, over a ten-year
period.
• The president ordered a review of
disaster plans for major metropolitan
areas.