Sunday, August 26, 2007

In Nature's Casino

Statistics from The New York Times Magazine:

$110,000,000,000: damages from U.S. weather disasters in 2005
790,000: insurance claims from Hurricane Andrew
$7,000,000,000,000: of insured coastal property nationwide
85%: California homeowners without earthquake insurance

$40,600,000,000: paid by insurers for damage caused by Hurricane Katrina
1,200,000: homeowners' insurance claims for Katrina
99%: those claims which have been settled
$15,700,000,000: in Katrina-related federal flood insurance claims

$8,000,000,000: in insured losses from U.S. tornadoes and related weather events in 2006
$5,210,000,000: damages from a single 1973 tornado in Georgia (in 2007 dollars)
678,906: acres destroyed by California wildfires in 2006
$11,800,000,000: in insured damages from the 1989 San Francisco earthquake (in 2007 dollars)

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