2005 Sets Record for Weather-Related Costs

2005 set a new record, according to estimates from the Munich Re Foundation, with more than $200 billion in economic losses due to weather-related disasters. Of that total, more than $75 billion was covered by insurance companies. Hurricane Katrina caused much of that loss, with damages estimated at $125 billion, of which about $45 billion was insured, according to the Foundation. “There is a powerful indication from these figures that we are moving from predictions of the likely impacts of climate change to proof that it is already fully underway,” says the Foundation’s director, Thomas Loster. “Above all, these are humanitarian tragedies that show us that, as a result of our impacts on the climate, we are making people and communities everywhere more vulnerable to weather-related natural disaster.” The previous record of $145 billion was set in 2004.