Economic losses from hurricanes and other natural disasters increased in the U.S. last year and were higher than average worldwide. This shows that there were many expensive storms, floods, and droughts.
Hurricanes Helene and Milton caused damage that contributed to a total of $217.8 billion in economic losses from natural disasters in the U.S. last year, as reported by the insurance company Aon PLC. That number shows an 85.3% increase from 2023, when losses were around $117.5 billion. This is the highest yearly total of economic losses from natural events since 2017.
Insured losses, which are the economic losses paid by insurance, also increased last year. They increased by 36% to $112.7 billion, which is the highest amount since 2022.
Last fall, Hurricane Helene hit six southeastern states, causing $75 billion in economic damage mainly from inland and coastal floods. as stated by Aon. Less than two weeks later, Hurricane Milton hit the west coast of Florida, resulting in about $25 billion in economic damage.
“In 2024, one of the big differences is we had significant U.S. hurricane events that happened,” said Liz Henderson, global head of climate risk advisory at Aon. “When these events occur, they impact a wide area, including places with valuable properties, people, and belongings.” As a result, the loses from those events are usually much greater.
At least two other hurricanes, several severe “convective” storms and a draught added to the losses from natural disasters in the U.S. last year.
Last year, strong storms in the U.S. and deadly floods in the Valencia region of Spain, along with other natural disasters, caused global economic losses of $368 billion, according to Aon. That’s a 7.3% drop from 2023, but about 14% higher than the average each year since 2000. Global guaranteed losses increased by 15.1% to reach $145 billion.
It’s hard to guess when and where natural disasters will happen or how much damage they will cause, but 2025 isn’t beginning well. The wildfires that broke out in Los Angeles County on January 7 were very destructive. They killed at least 28 people and destroyed over 14,000 buildings. These fires are expected to be one of the most expensive natural disasters.
Last week, Aon reported that the total economic and insured losses from the two biggest wildfires, the Palisades fire and the Eaton blaze near Los Angeles, could be in the lower tens of billions of dollars. This could make them the most expensive wildfires in U.S. history.
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