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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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April
2004
Volume 6
- Number 3 |
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2003 Disaster Statistics Reported by Munich RE Group. By Eric Gardner The Munich RE Group recently published information related to natural and engineering disasters for 2003. Munich RE publishes reports on an annual basis focusing on events having a significant economic impact on a country or region. Natural disasters in aggregate took the lives of about 78,000 people in some 700 events throughout the world in 2003. These numbers are comparable to statistics collected during the calendar year 2002 but the financial impact increased $10b (US dollars) to $65b. Only 15.8b of these losses were covered by insurance policies. Fires, droughts, and floods in Europe and the United States were the primary causes for the death and damage note above. Analysts contribute these affects to global warming and the changes in weather conditions worldwide. The largest single event causing the most death and destruction was an Iranian earthquake where over 40,000 deaths were reported. Most structures were composed of mud-brick where a majority of them collapsed or uninhabitable. It is estimated that another 30,000 were injured as a result of the earthquake and its aftershocks. Engineering and man-made catastrophes, nine with significant impact, caused about 1150 deaths and over 10,000 injuries. The largest number of deaths was associated with a ferry accident in Bangladesh where 650 people perished when the vehicle capsized. A natural gas disaster caused 200 deaths and about 10,000 injuries (severe poisoning and chemical burns) when a gas blowout occurred in China. Several engineering and man-made events having a significant financial impact throughout the world but resulted in no loss of life included the power outages in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Sweden, Denmark, and Italy. The economic loss in the United States and Canada is estimated at $6b for an event lasting less than 24 hours and affecting 50 million individuals. There was no additional data for losses for the other countries listed. While the volume of natural disasters and man-made events has not changed drastically, the trend of economic costs have exponentially increased over the last few years. This trend is expected to continue to rise over the next few years. For further information on this report or other reports related to specific events such as September 11 attacks can be found at www.munichre.com. All statistics and numbers contained within this summary can be found within the report TOPICgeo: Annual Review of Natural Disasters. |