Hurricane damage soars.(Typhoons)

Damage from hurricanes is soaring off the charts, bankrupting insurance companies and depriving property owners of insurance in high-risk areas. During the 1960s, worldwide damage from windstorms with economic losses of $1,000,000,000 or more totaled $4,000,000,000. In the 1970s, the figure rose to $7,000,000,000; the 1980s, $24,000,000,000; and the 1990s, $113,000,000,000. Then, from 2000-05, hurricanes left a staggering bill of $273,000,000,000.

Two trends largely are responsible for the growing costs of windstorm disasters, declares Janet Larsen, research associate with Earth Policy Institute, Washington, D.C. One, rapid coastal development is bringing more people and more expensive infrastructure into vulnerable areas. Two, hurricanes (called typhoons in the western Pacific) are growing stronger and lasting longer, fueled by higher sea surface temperatures. They also are widening their geographic range, invading areas previously considered safe from the wrath of windstorms.

Two years ago was the worst ever for storm-stricken areas and the companies that insure them, Larsen points out. Losses from the eight major storms of 2005 exceeded $170,000,000,000, half of which were insured. Three of the storms were in the Pacific, but the Atlantic storms racked up 98% of the costs. The unusually long North Atlantic hurricane season--extending from June into the New Year--brought a record 28 named storms, taking us through the alphabet and into Greek letters. This nearly is three times the average annual number of storms over the past century. Four hurricanes--Emily, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma--reached maximum strength, the highest number of Category 5 storms ever in a single season.

Hurricane Katrina, which struck the U.S. Gulf Coast in late August 2005, was the most financially devastating storm on record, with damages from winds and water surges exceeding $125,000,000,000. Although Katrina reached top wind speeds of 175 miles per hour, it had weakened to a Category 3 by the time it hit the Gulf. Powerful Rita's arrival a few weeks later marked the first time two Category 5 storms developed in the Gulf of Mexico in one season. Then came Wilma, which devastated parts of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and went down in history as the most intense Atlantic storm ever.

Storms in 2005 not only were strong, they were more widespread. Hurricane Vince, which struck Spain in October, traveled farther north and east than any other Atlantic tropical cyclone. A month later, Tropical Storm Delta moved into uncharted territory for Atlantic hurricanes, crossing the Canary Islands. Stronger storms in unexpected places, like these and Brazil's 2004 Hurricane Catarina, the first hurricane recorded in the South Atlantic, are prompting insurance companies to rewrite their catastrophe models.