Weather-related disasters in the past two decades have killed more than 600,000 people and inflicted economic losses estimated at trillions of dollars, the United Nations said on Monday, warning that the frequency and impact of such events was set to rise.
According to the report from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, the United States has had the highest number of weather-related disasters in the past two decades, but China and India have been the most severely affected, enduring floods that had an effect on billions of people.
As well as killing hundreds of thousands, weather-related disasters affected 4.1 billion other people left wounded, displaced or in need of emergency assistance and inflicted economic costs well in excess of $1.9 trillion over the two decades, the report found.
The United Nations office recorded an average of 335 weather-related disasters every year over the two decades, double the level in the previous 10 years. The report counted events that had killed 10 or more people, affected more than 1,000 and generated appeals for external assistance.
Floods accounted for close to half of all the weather-related disasters, affecting 2.3 billion people, mostly in Asia, the report found. Storms took the heaviest toll of lives, however, causing about 242,000 recorded deaths, including 138,000 killed by Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar in 2008.
Droughts, most acute in Africa, affected more than a billion people in the past two decades, leading not only to hunger, malnutrition and disease but also to widespread agricultural failure that resulted in long-lasting underdevelopment, the report said.
Heat waves killed 148,000, mostly in Europe, and wildfires emerged as another climate-related risk, according to the report. About 38 major wildfires in the United States were estimated to have affected more than 108,000 people and caused recorded losses of over $11 billion — numbers the report said were sure to rise when fires that were raging after August 2015, the cutoff point for data, were taken into account.
1.35 million people killed in natural disasters over the last two decades
Losses from global disasters in 2017 exceeded $300bn
Extreme hurricanes and wildfires made 2017 the most costly U.S. disaster year on record
2017 Off to Destructive Start: Severe Weather Reports Tally 5,000+, More Than Double the Average
Billion-dollar man-made and natural disasters of 2016
Natural catastrophe losses in 2016 at their highest since 2012
2016 Is A Year Of Extreme Weather Disasters For The U.S.
This Has Been The Worst 12 Months For Floods In U.S. History
Why Is The Weather So Crazy All Of A Sudden?
Winds, fire, floods and quakes: A nutty run of nature
Average number of tornadoes during extreme weather outbreaks rising since 1954
2013/14 winter season in Europe most energetic since 1948
California homes on the brink, Chilean coast battered: El Nino wreaks havoc on Pacific regions
Massive El Niño sweeping globe is now the biggest ever recorded
Extreme weather: Coincidence or climate change?
Why Is The United States Being Hit By So Many Fires, Floods And Earthquakes?
PROPHECY 4
Don’t Despair When You Can’t Feel Me By Your Side! MY Wrath Is As Great As MY Love!
February 5, 1997
There have always been earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes here and there but when you see them like a chain reaction, many at the same time then you will know this is the time I have warned you about. REPENT NOW before it’s too late! I have been holding back MY anger far too long now! For the sake of MY Son and his prayers for you, the people I have held back MY wrath.
PROPHECY 11
Rise Up, Speak Up, Tell The Devil To Shut Up, In MY Name!
I tell you look to the volcanoes and earthquakes, the terrors in the sky and you will know how soon MY coming is. As I control the one thing man cannot and never will control the elements in the sky and the weather. Man cannot stop the volcanoes, earthquakes, snow or cold or heat, tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding from torrential rain as evil gets more evil, good becomes more holy. I am separating MY People now and MY coming is eminent. Do what you are going to do for ME quickly.
PROPHECY 36
I Am Not Only Your God Of Yesterday, Today, But Tomorrow, Even In The Darkest Hour
August 10, 1999
I speak in the drought, I speak through the violent winds that will blow across the lands, I speak through the earthquakes that will topple the tallest buildings and I speak through the floods as MY tears are torrent for MY rebellious children. I speak and the earth quakes at MY anger. I speak and the lava pours forth at MY anger.
PROPHECY 74
“I, YAHUVEH, HAVE DECLARED WAR ON PLANET EARTH FROM HEAVEN!
June 25, 2004
Foolish, foolish, foolish people of this world, what does it take for you to listen? For I speak to you in the weather, you just shake your head and say isn’t that strange? I told you that I speak to you in the floods; you pay no attention even in the hurricanes. How many people must die before your eyes turn to ME? It just seems like if it is only buildings and casualties you do not even acknowledge ME. So you shall see your weather turn stranger. Man thinks he can control weather. Oh you boast America you have the machine but you forget; who is the one who stores up the hail, who stores up the snow, who stores up the rain, who causes the volcano’s to blow. You forget the one who shakes the earth and I need no machine.