Hurricane damages $54 billion in 2008

by ARTiFactor on Dec. 01st, 2008
in The Water Cycle, Weather and Climate

comments

Hurricane Ike: Galveston, Texas - 9/13/2008
Courtesy Coast Guard News

Hurricane season busy and costly in 2008

The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season has now ended. It was one of the busiest and costliest hurricane seasons ever. 2008 was "the only year on record in which a major hurricane existed in every month from July through November in the north Atlantic." According to the National Climatic Data Center, damages are estimated at $54 billion. That total is second only to 2005 which had Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

In all, there have been 16 named storms since the Atlantic hurricane season started on June 1. Eight were hurricanes, five of them major -- meaning Category 3 or higher. Three -- Dolly, Gustav, and Ike -- made landfall in the United States, though none was a major hurricane at the time of landfall.

Source: CNN

Your Comments, Thoughts, Questions, Ideas

iowaboy says:

i saw a feature on the news recently about the hurricane season, which seemed to have the same message as in previous seasons. after katrina in 2005, there was a joke from some small-town resident that was sad but true, about fema standing for 'forget everyone but metro areas'. with katrina, most only cared about new orleans. and during this season, as the feature said, once the lights were turned on back in houston the news media stopped caring about the hurricane, in this case ike. natural disasters affect people in ALL areas, not just big cities.

posted on Wed, 12/03/2008 - 4:08pm

SLC says:

Will these hurricane every stop ruining people lifes?? Why can we just not have hurricane anymore??? It is so dangerous and lots of people tend to die or have no homes to live anymore cause of these hurricane. That's a lot of money that had been damaged to the states or area that is getting ruin.

posted on Thu, 12/04/2008 - 9:53am

Liza says:

Lots of scientists agree with you, SLC, but controlling huge weather systems like hurricanes is much more difficult than you might think.

If you look at this comment (part of our "Science of Hurricanes" feature), and then scroll down, you'll find a long and detailed discussion of various techniques people have dreamed up to try and dissipate hurricanes, and why, so far anyway, none of them have proven a satisfactory solution.

posted on Thu, 12/04/2008 - 10:49am

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