Image: Ice damaged trees at Bolivar, Missouri, caught up in one
of three ice storms that affected much of the US. Courtesy: Joleene
Naylor
This report was first published in Catastrophe Risk Management in
April 2007 |
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Storms and floods dominated the period from the end of July
to early November 2006, with super-typhoon Durian devastating
the Philippines and later battering Vietnam. Total loss of life
due to Durian was over 800, with economic losses estimated at
around US$556 million. Europe also took a pounding from Winter
Storm Kyrill, the most powerful to strike the region for several
years. The storm caused 47 fatalities and generated insured
losses estimated at somewhere between €3 and €8 billion.
In Australia, Cyclone George made landfall on the sparsely inhabited
north-west coast, taking two lives, while in the United States,
winter storms held much of the country in their grip in January.
Three successive ice storms affected states from Arizona in
the south west to New England and the Canadian Maritimes. At
around the same time a cold wave plunged southwards across Washington
State and Oregon, and into California, bringing snow to Malibu,
and destroying most of the citrus fruit crop at an estimated
cost of US$800 million to US$1 billion. Another cold wave across
Bangladesh took over 130 lives. The end of winter in the US
brought a tornado outbreak across the southern states that took
20 lives, including eight at a school in Alabama. Torrential
rains brought flooding on a biblical scale to the Horn of Africa,
Kenya and Mozambique, affecting millions and bringing the prospect
of food shortages to come. Serious floods, sometimes accompanied
by mudslides, were also reported from Angola, Bolivia, DPR Korea,
DR Congo, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malawi, Peru, Rwanda, Zambia
and Zimbabwe. Geologically, the past four months have been very
quiet. Volcanic activity continued at a minimal level, while
significant earthquakes were confined to a Richter Magnitude
5.5 event in Kyrgyzstan, which caused damage but no loss of
life, and two events in Indonesia. On December 16th, 2006, a
magnitude 5.5 – 6 quake caused four fatalities, while
a larger (M=6.3) event in West Sumatra, on March 6th, 2007,
took over 50 lives. |
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