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Disasters have a way of ignoring the calendar. But for many Americans, the start of summer means the beginning of disaster season. Along the East and Gulf coasts, there's the threat of hurricanes. In the middle, it's extreme rainstorms. And across a wide swath of the West, it's wildfires.
As the climate changes, we can expect more extreme weather, according to the National Climate Assessment released by the federal government last November. And that means the possibility of more costly disasters.
Our team at USAFacts took a look at the cost of extreme weather. One thing that stuck out? Costs related to natural disasters keep going up, and the number of billion-dollar disasters is on the rise. But so are costs related to more frequent severe storms, which have seen a significant uptick since 1980.
Five of the most expensive disaster declarations since 1980 happened within the last decade: Hurricanes Harvey, Maria, Sandy and Irma, and the 2012 drought/heat wave.
The number of declared natural disasters is also on the rise, due to extreme weather. FEMA declared 137 incidents in 2017 and 124 in 2018. Since 1999, there were 1,052 more fire declarations and 529 more severe storm declarations than in the previous 20 years.
Since 2000, the most expensive types of disasters have been hurricanes, severe storms, fires, floods, and severe ice storms. In 2017, U.S. disaster aid spiked to $18.6 billion.
Hurricanes continue to be the deadliest major disaster event type. Hurricane Maria, which hit Puerto Rico, caused a reported 2,981 deaths in 2017. For comparison, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 is linked to 1,833 deaths.
For more information, take a look at our annual report, where you can see which disasters have caused the most havoc in recent years.
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BORDER APPREHENSIONS & IMMIGRATION
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While border apprehensions have not yet exceeded historic levels, the type of person apprehended is shifting. According to a 2016 CBP report, “the characteristics of illegal migration across our southern border have changed significantly over the last 15 years - far fewer Mexican nationals and single adults are attempting to cross the border without authorization, while far more families and unaccompanied children are fleeing poverty and violence in Central America.”
Estimating the number of unauthorized immigrants in the US is difficult but not impossible. The currently accepted methodology takes the total number of immigrants in the US, subtracts those in the country legally, and adds between 10 and 15%, dependent on other factors. According to the Department of Homeland Security, approximately 12 million unauthorized immigrants were living in the US as of the most recent study (2015). You can learn more about their methodology right here. |
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