Debris covers a residential area in Perryton, Texas, Thursday, June 15, 2023, after a tornado struck the town.
David Erickson | AP
The U.S. has suffered the very best variety of billion-dollar weather disasters on record this yr with wildfires and severe storms wreaking havoc from Hawaii to Florida, based on a report released by the federal government Monday.
The nation has been hit by 23 such disasters up to now in 2023, the very best number for the reason that National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began keeping records in 1980. The previous record was set in 2020 with 22 separate disasters that every caused a billion or more dollars in damage.
The 23 disasters this yr have caused greater than $57.6 billion in damage and killed not less than 253 people, based on the NOAA report.
The deadliest wildfire in greater than a century ravaged West Maui, Hawaii in August, killing not less than 115 people and causing as much as $6 billion in estimated damages. Just weeks later, Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Florida’s Big Bend coast, the strongest hurricane to hit the region in 125 years.
The variety of billion-dollar weather disasters has been increasing since 1980. On average, there have been 8 such disasters every yr from 1980-2022. In probably the most recent five years, there have been 18 such disasters annually on average, based on NOAA.
The back-to-back disasters have raised concerns about whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency has enough money left to reply adequately as hurricane season enters it peak.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said last month that the federal disaster fund is right down to the last $3.4 billion, forcing the agency to deal with the immediate needs of individuals impacted by the Maui wildfires, Hurricane Idalia and other disasters which will strike within the near term.
Criswell said the disaster fund would go into the red by the center of this month within the absence of additional money. The Biden administration has asked Congress for $16 billion to replenish the fund.
President Joe Biden attributed the growing variety of severe weather events to climate change: “I do not think anybody can deny the impact of the climate crisis anymore,” Biden said last month during remarks on the White House after Idalia made landfall.
“Just go searching — historic floods, more intense droughts, extreme heat, significant wildfires have caused significant damage like we have never seen before,” Biden said.
The president called on Congress to act swiftly on additional FEMA funding.
“We’d like this money done. We’d like this disaster relief request met and we’d like to do it in September — we won’t wait,” Biden told FEMA personnel during a visit to the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. last month.
