{"id":102625,"date":"2025-07-29T17:33:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T17:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/102625\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T17:33:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T17:33:11","slug":"cost-of-billion-dollar-natural-disasters-soar-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/102625\/","title":{"rendered":"Cost of billion-dollar natural disasters soar \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weather disasters in the first half of this year have cost the United States $93 billion in damage, according to a report released Tuesday by a German multinational <\/strong>insurance <\/strong>company. <\/p>\n

The analysis by Munich Re, the world\u2019s largest reinsurer, found that more than 70% of all damage globally from weather disasters so far this year occurred in the U.S., with uninsured Americans and their local governments experiencing a whopping $22 billion in damage.<\/p>\n

The report shows the soaring economic toll that wildfires, severe storms and other extreme events are exacting in the U.S. and globally. The findings also highlight the growing insurance crisis<\/a> playing out in parts of the country that are prone to frequent weather disasters<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen some 90% of all losses for the insurance industry \u2014 so 72 out of 80 billion U.S. dollars \u2014 have happened in the U.S.,\u201d said Tobias Grimm, Munich Re\u2019s chief climate scientist. \u201cThat\u2019s extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The devastating wildfires in Southern California in January topped the list of the country\u2019s costliest disasters in the first half of 2025. The two largest fires, which killed at least 30 people and displaced thousands more, ripped through the communities inPacific Palisades and Altadena, fanned by strong Santa Ana winds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Munich Re estimated that the wildfires caused $53 billion in losses, including about $13 billion in damages for residents without insurance. The reinsurer said the Los Angeles-area blazes resulted in the \u201chighest wildfire losses of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wildfires\u2019 huge economic and societal toll was due in part to increased development in fire-prone areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cLosses are on the rise because often properties are in harm\u2019s way,\u201d Grimm said. \u201cPeople still live in high-risk areas.\u201d <\/p>\n

Urban development in hazard-prone areas can similarly drive up the cost of other weather-related disasters, such as hurricanes and flooding, which are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change.<\/p>\n

Studies have shown that climate change is making wildfires more frequent<\/a> because of warmer temperatures and worsening drought conditions. Blazes are also becoming more intense, as a result. <\/p>\n

A report released in late January from the World Weather Attribution group found that the hot, dry and windy conditions that helped the fires consume large swaths of Southern California were about 35% more likely because of human-caused global warming<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"LeslyLesly Karen Cornett stands among the debris of her house outside London, Ky., on May 18. (Michael Swensen \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Munich Re\u2019s own earnings have been affected by the L.A. wildfires, as was reported by CNBC<\/a>. Profits were down a total of $1.9 billion for Munich Re and Hannover Re (another German reinsurer), according to their first-quarter earnings reports.<\/p>\n

Other major disasters in the U.S. so far included severe storms in March that caused $6.7 billion in damage, a series of tornadoes in May that caused about $5 billion in losses, and severe storms and flooding in April that caused $4 billion in damage. <\/p>\n

\u201cSevere convective storms\u201d \u2014 ones that produce excessive rainfall, strong winds, tornadoes or large hail \u2014 caused $34 billion in damage in the U.S. from January through June, according to Munich Re. Of that, $8 billion were uninsured losses, the company found, which included damage to roads and public schools.<\/p>\n

Outside of the U.S., a tropical cyclone that hit Australia in late February dumped heavy rain over parts of Queensland and New South Wales, causing an estimated $3.5 billion in damage. <\/p>\n

\"DebrisDebris in the damaged Me Nu Brick monastery on the outskirts of Mandalay, Myanmar, following the devastating March 28 earthquake. (Sai Aung Main \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Internationally, the costliest disaster so far this year wasn\u2019t climate-related: A 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar<\/a> in late March. An estimated 4,500 people died after the quake rattled the cities of Sagaing and Mandalay and surrounding areas.<\/p>\n

And a magnitude-6 earthquake that struck Taiwan in January caused $1.3 billion in losses, according to Munich Re.<\/p>\n

The insurance company\u2019s report comes months after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it would stop tracking the economic toll of the United States\u2019 costliest extreme weather events. The elimination of NOAA\u2019s \u201cBillion Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters\u201d<\/a> yearly reports was seen by critics as yet another way that the Trump administration has cut back or eliminated climate science at federal agencies. <\/p>\n

A NOAA spokesperson previously told NBC News that the decision to discontinue the database was made \u201cin alignment with evolving priorities and staffing changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grimm said it\u2019s \u201cvital\u201d to collaborate with NOAA and other government agencies to ensure that these types of reports contain accurate data. The resulting analyses can, for instance, be used by insurance companies and government officials to shape policies, and they are particularly important as billion-dollar disasters become more frequent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe probability of extreme weather is changing,\u201d Grimm said, \u201cso we need to adapt and, of course, to mitigate future losses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Weather disasters in the first half of this year have cost the United States $93 billion in damage,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":102626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,285,2961,224,5337,23754],"class_list":{"0":"post-102625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-climate-change","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-natural-disasters"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114937725293958666","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}