Texas Disaster Adds to US Flood Costs That Exceed $200 Billion
(Bloomberg) -- The deluge in Texas last week ranks as one of the deadliest and costliest flash floods in US history, highlighting the mounting threat to communities that aren’t prepared for extreme rainfall.
It’s too early to know the exact toll of the flooding in Texas, which killed more than 100 people. But a preliminary estimate from AccuWeather Inc. puts the total damage and economic loss at $18 billion to $22 billion, a figure that includes direct and indirect impacts as well as long-term effects on businesses like tourism.
“Flood risks are escalating under climate change,” said Megan Mullin, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles. “We’re getting wetter storms, and they’re becoming really concentrated in time in many places, and our infrastructure isn’t set up to protect people from those kinds of storms.”
From 1980 through last year, flooding killed hundreds of people nationwide and inflicted at least $203.3 billion in losses, according National Centers for Environmental Information data adjusted for inflation. That’s about $50 billion more than the toll of wildfires over the same period. The US stopped collecting this data, which captures only direct losses from disasters that cost $1 billion or more, after President Donald Trump took office for his second term.
Tropical storms and hurricanes are also responsible for many flood-related deaths in the US. A year ago, 250 people died in Hurricane Helene, most of whom perished in floods the storm unleashed across Appalachia. It’s possible that the mortalities from the Texas floods may be ultimately categorized as indirect losses from Tropical Storm Barry.
Here are the top five US flood events by economic losses, excluding the recent Texas disaster:
1. Midwest Flooding, Summer 1993
More than three decades ago, the upper Mississippi River Basin in the US Midwest experienced the costliest non-tropical inland flood event in the US on record. Known as “The Great Flood of 1993,” it resulted in at least 48 deaths and caused an estimated $46.3 billion in direct losses. Persistent, heavy rains caused the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and their tributaries to flood, wreaking havoc across nine states and damaging or destroying over 50,000 homes.
The flooding was so destructive that it prompted governors from all nine states to agree to a plan to pay to relocate people out of flood zones.
2. Midwest Flooding, Summer 2008
Major flooding along the Mississippi River and its tributaries resulted in at least 24 fatalities and $14.9 billion in damages in states across the Midwest, with Iowa being hardest hit. Heavy rainfall unleashed significant agricultural losses and property damage, and major levees in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids were breached, resulting in forced evacuations.
Damages were long-lasting. In Cedar Rapids, over 40% of the businesses in the flood zone still lacked power even months later.
3. Missouri River and North Central Flooding, March 2019
Affecting much of the Midwest, the historic flood caused widespread damage to agriculture, roads and bridges. Triggered in part by a powerful snowstorm and warming temperatures that intensified snowmelt, the flood resulted in at least three deaths and $13.4 billion in losses. Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts called it the most widespread disaster the state had faced.
The deluge damaged the Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, the third US military base to be hit by a billion-dollar disaster event in six months. Flooding also closed a stretch of Interstate 29 through northwestern Missouri for several months and disrupted some railroad lines used to deliver ethanol to Texas refineries.
4. Louisiana Flooding, August 2016
Causing at least 13 deaths and $13.3 billion in damages, the flood wreaked havoc across southern Louisiana after the region received 20 to 30 inches of rainfall over several days. Dubbed “the Great Flood of 2016,” the disaster damaged or destroyed over 50,000 homes and 20,000 businesses.
Many of those affected by the flood were uninsured, as standard home insurance in the US doesn’t cover flood damage. One report estimated that at least 80% of the damaged homes lacked coverage through a government program.
5. Mississippi River, Midwest and Southern Flooding, July 2019
Only months after the devastating March deluge, persistent heavy rains caused additional flooding across the Southern Plains, resulting in at least four deaths and costing the area $7.6 billion.
Barge traffic along the Mississippi River was disrupted by very high water levels that summer, with hundreds of barges stalled and railroads and highways also closed, putting a halt to the farm-belt economy. Flooded farmland in Indiana and Ohio also reduced crop planting by millions of acres.
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