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As more people and societal infrastructure concentrate along coastal areas, the United States is becoming more vulnerable to the impact of tropical cyclones. Furthermore, it is not surprising that hurricanes are the costliest natural disasters because of the changes in the population and the national wealth density or revenue. The States most affected by the cost of hurricanes (e.g. Florida, Texas, North Carolina and Maryland) have also a high total common tax revenue, which is an indicator of wealth for the state. The impact of hurricanes along the east coast is further amplified because the people moving into these coastal areas represent the higher wealth segment of our society. A better understanding of both hurricane frequencies and intensities as they vary from year to year and their relation to changes in damages is of great interest to scientists, public and private decision makers and the general public. Pielke and Landsea (1998) concluded in their study of normalized hurricane damages over the past seventy years that it is only a matter of time before the nation experiences a $50 billion or greater storm, with multibillion dollar losses becoming increasingly frequent. |
For any particular location the chance that a hurricane will directly affect the area sometime during the whole June to November hurricane season is shown here. The years 1944 to 1999 were used in the analysis and counted hits when a hurricane was within about 60 miles (110 km). This figure is created by Todd Kimberlain. (For example, the chance for Miami, Florida is about 16%. More information of this type can be found at NOAA's Hurricane Research Division FAQ page |
University of Miami |
http://storms.nos.noaa.gov/index.html |
