2005 was a bad year for natural disasters. An estimated 112,000 people died, and economic loss is expected to exceed $225 billion. Only about $80 billion of that loss was covered by insurance.
Hurricane Katrina, shown above, was responsible for $135 billion of losses. The majority of deaths, 87,000, was associated with the Pakistan earthquake of October 8 2005. That earthquake was caused by the continuing northward movement of the Indian tectonic plate and its subduction under the Eurasian plate. A result of that movement is that some mountains in the Karakoram range, such as K2 shown below, are rising by 4-5 cm per year.
Hmm, might be time to revive Project Stormfury, or invest in earthquake prediction and prevention .
$80B in Disaster Losses in 2005 – Associated Press, Dec 20 2005
Related posts:
- Mobile & Wireless Predictions 2005
- FAA Global Fuel Burn Patterns
- international CES 2005
- Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004
- A Year of Heavy Losses in the U.S. Stock Market
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