Yesterday, the Center for Emergency Management and Homeland Security at Arizona State University released an update of its database on U.S. disaster losses, the Spatial Hazard Events and Losses Database for the United States (SHELDUS).
This is the dataset used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to estimate expected annual losses from disasters in the U.S. — for 2021 FEMA expected $141 billion in disaster losses.
The loss estimates from SHELDUS and FEMA cannot be compared to the “billion-dollar disasters” from NOAA (see here for an explanation).
This is a really important number & I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere
FEMA estimates that in 2021 we should expect $141B is catastrophe losses in the US, based on current exposure, historical event frequency & loss ratios https://t.co/9zo5scIT6A
— Roger Pielke Jr. (@RogerPielkeJr) December 18, 2021
The SHELDUS data, like others, indicate a decline in U.S. disaster losses since 1990 as a proportion of U.S. GDP (data via OMB).
Measuring disaster costs as a fraction of GDP is the recommended methodology of the United Nations under its Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
The U.S. is part of a broader global trend of declining vulnerability to weather and climate extremes, which has been documented around the world and for a wide range of weather and climate phenomena.
This is good news, but the downward trend will not continue without continued attention to disaster risk reduction.
Read more at The Honest Broker
Some areas are more prone to disasters and severe weather events. These disaster caused losses are directly proportional to how many people reside in any given disaster-prone area. Move the people away from those areas and disasters are mitigated somewhat. There is disaster risk living anywhere and some areas carry much higher risks.