How do you calculate the price of a storm?
By Maarten Rikken
What will be on the receipt for Harvey, Irma, and Maria? We speak with Adam Smith of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who calculates the cost of weather and climate disasters. Smith explains that a storm’s price tag includes all measurable things: destroyed office towers, damaged homes, farms and crops, business interruption costs, and public infrastructure like roads and bridges. Insurance companies provide initial totals, and then government agencies add the cost of repairing roadways, bridges, parks, and power lines.
ResearchGate: What motivated you to study the cost of weather and climate disasters?
Adam Smith: This research seeks to bring the best and most complete disaster loss data together in a unified, systematic approach. We seek to quantify the total, direct costs for numerous weather and climate disasters including: hurricanes, drought, inland floods, severe local storms, wildfires, crop freeze events, and winter storms.
RG: Can you give an overall picture of these costs?
Smith: The US has sustained 212 weather and climate disasters since 1980 where overall damages reached or exceeded $1 billion (including consumer price index (CPI)-adjustments to 2017 dollars). The total cost of these 212 events exceeds $1.2 trillion (as of July 2017).
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