GENEVA (AP) — Weather disasters are striking the world four to five times more often and causing seven times more damage than in the 1970s, the United Nations weather agency reports. Most death and damage during 50 years of weather disasters came from storms, flooding and drought. In the 1970s, weather disasters cost about $175 million a year globally, when adjusted to 2019 dollars, the U.N. found. The five most expensive weather disasters since 1970 were all storms in the United States, topped by 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. The five deadliest weather disasters were in Africa and Asia — topped by the Ethiopian drought and famine in the mid 1980s and Cyclone Bhola in Bangladesh in 1970.

Source: thestar September 01, 2021 06:56 UTC