12.31.2008 9:08 AM

2008 Natural Disasters Among Deadliest and Costliest on Record

Only 2004 was more deadly, and only two years cost more.
Also see The Most Extreme Weather of 2008.

Bringing new meaning to the word "devastation," Tropical Cyclone Nargis struck Burma on May 2 as a Category 4 monster hurricane.

It left, by some estimates, nearly 150,000 dead, making it the most deadly storm since 1991, and the most devastating ever to hit Burma (Myanmar). The relief effort was long hampered by the repressive regime in control of the country.

The storm reared up out of the Bay of Bengal, sweeping into the Irrawaddy Delta. Whether or not global warming spawns more frequent or intense hurricanes -- a point that is still hotly debated by experts in the field -- all agree that low-lying and heavily populated nations like Burma and neighboring Bangladesh are likely to experience increasingly devastating storms, as sea level rises, leading to greater damage from storm surges. Nargis spawned a 12-foot storm surge.

Photo: European Space Agency

By Dan Shapley

Only 2004, when a tsunami devastated Southeast Asia, saw more deaths from natural disasters than this year, according to a new report from Munich Re, one of the world's largest reinsurers, according to the BBC.

And natural disasters in only two years — 2005, when Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans, and 1995, when Japan was rocked by the Kobe earthquake — cost the world more.

Overall, 220,000 people died from natural disasters in 2008, and damages totaled $200 billion. Munich Re is not shy about associating the increasing toll of natural disasters with a cause: global warming. While all natural disasters — earthquakes, for instance — cannot be attributed to global warming, a growing number are likely influenced by increasing heat: drought, heat waves, strong storms and flooding among them.

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