If the Great Storm of 1900 had hit Galveston two years ago, it would have inflicted $72 billion in damage, nearly as much as Hurricane Katrina, researchers say.
Already the country's deadliest hurricane with an estimated 8,000 deaths, the 1900 storm also would rank as the nation's third costliest, say hurricane scientists who sought to gauge the economic damage that historic storms would have caused if they had occurred in 2005.
Under the new analysis, which adjusted for inflation, population and coastal development, Hurricane Katrina and its $81 billion cost ranked second to the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926, which caused damage estimated at almost $140 billion. Another Galveston hurricane, in 1915, ranked fourth with $57 billion in damage.
From the Houston Chronicle
Galveston poised to defy geologists
Also Warren Buffet on Global Warming (from the 1992 letter
to shareholders):
Furthermore, in recent years
there has been a mushrooming of population and insured values
in U.S. coastal areas that are particularly vulnerable to
hurricanes, the number one creator of super-cats. A
hurricane that caused x dollars of damage 20 years ago could
easily cost 10x now.
