Tag: tornados

More people and more wealth, yet less losses. That’s what the latest 2014 disaster statistics tell us. Bad news for the doomsday worshippers and cheerleaders.

The Geneva-Switzerland based International Federation of the Red Cross recently released its 2014 Natural Disaster Report, according to the German online daily BILD here. If anything, the news is very good – with huge drops in losses.

Moreover US hurricane and tornado activity trends since 1950 have remained flat or are decreasing respectively.

A copy of the report’s results is here. The AON Executive Summary writes (my emphasis):

Down Again: 2014 Catastrophe Losses Below Average
Global natural disasters1 in 2014 combined to cause economic losses of USD 132 billion, 37 percent below the ten-year average of USD211 billion. The losses were attributed to 258 separate events, compared to the ten-year average of 260. The disasters caused insured losses of USD39 billion, 38 percent below the ten-year average of USD63 billion and was the lowest insured loss total since 2009. This was the second consecutive year with below normal catastrophe losses. Notable events during the year included major flooding in India, Pakistan, China, and Southeast Europe; billion-dollar convective thunderstorm events in the United States, France, and Germany; winter storms in Japan and the United States; and widespread drought in the United States and Brazil. The top three perils, flood, tropical cyclone, and severe weather, combined for 72 percent of all economic losses in 2014. Despite 75 percent of catastrophe losses occurring outside of the United States, it still accounted for 53 percent of global insured losses, driven by a higher insurance penetration.”

According to the Red Cross data, many of the deaths were due to cold, with 505 alone occurring in one country – Peru! Among the top disasters were brutal winters in the USA and japan – hardly what one would expect from “global warming”.

90% less deaths

A total of 8186 people died in 2014 because of natural disasters. Bild reports: “2014 the number of deaths from natural disasters was almost 90 percent under the 10-year average of 76