2011 disasters cause $55 billion in damages in U.S.

This year’s natural disasters could cost the United States as much as $55 billion.

Prior to Hurricane Irene, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center estimated that the nine major natural disasters to hit the United States earlier this year caused an estimated $35 million in damages.

Peter Morici, an economics professor at the University of Maryland and the former chief economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission, estimates that the latest storm could cost as much as $20 billion, pushing the year’s total to $55 billion.

The year began with a massive blizzard that paralyzed much of the country beginning on 29 January. The heavy snows caused more than $2 billion in damages.

Beginning in April, the worst tornado season in history also left much of the south, Midwest, and southeast in ruins. One particularly violent tornado outbreak left 140 people dead in Joplin, Missouri and caused more than $7 billion in damages across several states including Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee.

The tornado season was followed by record spring floods up and down the entire length of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Souris Rivers that left many communities and millions of acres of farmland inundated in water. Damages are estimated to be more than $6 billion.

Meanwhile wildfires raged across the southwest and the south causing $5 billion in losses that are expected to grow.