The first half of 2010: a period of natural disasters

The first half of 2010 has been a time of unprecedented natural disasters – 440 recorded events (the second highest for a six month period in 10 years since 2000).

Three major earthquakes have struck around the globe: Haiti, Chile, and China. On January 12, the Haiti earthquake, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale and lasting barely a minute, devastated the region, killing an estimated 223,000 people with many more injured, homeless, or psychologically affected. On February 27, the Chilean earthquake was more severe at 8.8 on the Richter scale – the fifth largest ever measured. The lower death toll of 521 is attributed to the earthquake-resistant construction standards. The third earthquake occurred in April, claiming 2,700 lives. Most of the recorded deaths attributed to natural disasters are those that occurred within a short period of time after the event – not usually months or years after (mainly due to the high degree of speculation and lack of evidence).

In addition to earthquakes, there were 55 geophysical events – including the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland in March – and 385 weather-related natural catastrophes. These included the Winter Storm Xynthia in the Canary Islands (that swept into the Iberian Peninsula, France and parts of central Europe) on 26-28 February with winds up to 240 kilometres per hour. Other weather-related events were floods and landslides. Barely any part of the world escaped some form of natural disaster.

Who recorded all this? National weather agencies keep track of data. So too do insurance agencies! With every natural disaster, exceptional and substantial losses occur, says Geo Risks Research in Munich. They analyze and evaluate loss trends using the world’s largest natural-catastrophe loss database.

Geo’s records show that in the first six months of this year, the overall losses were recorded at $70 billion US dollars. That’s already more than the overall losses for the whole of 2009. Add that to the global financial crisis. Imagine the total financial losses if unnatural (person-made) disasters are added – such as America’s oil leak crisis in the Gulf Region. That’s an enormous amount of people and personal loss.

I hope the next six months is a more hopeful and optimistic time for people across the globe – personally, emotionally, physically, socially, financially, environmentally, and amorously.

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