As Hurricane Season Nears, Which States Have Seen Most Expensive Disasters

Staff Writer

As hurricane season nears and states ramp up for wild weather-prone summers, some states across the U.S. have to manage more expensive natural disasters than others.

Insurance company Quote Wizard talked about the findings of a recent report on natural disasters. According to KXAN, Nick Vinzant with Quote Wizard said, "We looked at natural disasters and how many billion-dollar natural disasters have happened over the last 40 years. And what we found is that natural disasters have increased by 163 percent nationwide over the last 20 years."

According to World Atlas, more than 2,000 natural disasters have been declared across the U.S. in the last 70 years, and some states deal with multi-billion dollar damages from those disasters. In 2020 alone, NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) reported 22 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters across the country.

Here are five states that have seen some of the most expensive natural disasters:

Texas

In the Quote Wizard report, the state of Texas was discovered to have the most natural disasters in the U.S.

"$137 billion plus natural disasters in the last 40 years," Vinzant said, "And it's not even really close. Texas has 137 natural disasters, significant natural disasters."

He explained that in the last 20 years, Texas has seen "103 total major natural disasters — 10 of those have been droughts, six flooding. There have been technically no freezes yet. But this is a lagging number."

In 2020, a study from ValuePenguin stated that in the last five years, Texas suffered an average of $14 billion a year in property damage from natural disasters, including floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes.

California

California has the second-highest amount of natural disasters in the U.S. Over the last few years alone, the state has seen several major wildfires that have done billions of dollars worth of damage.

The largest to note was California's Camp Fire, which killed 86 people and burned the Northern town of Paradise to the ground in November 2018. A report from German-based global reinsurance company Munich Re stated the fire was the most costly natural disaster worldwide in 2018.

According to the report, the fire cost California $16.5 billion in losses, including $12.5 billion in insured losses.

California also suffers from extreme droughts, landslides, and earthquakes yearly.

Florida

Florida's tropical climate warrants significant concern around hurricane season, and past storms have done significant damage to several Florida communities.

In 2020, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) gave more than $2 billion to the State of Florida and the communities affected by Category 5 Hurricane Irma, which desecrated some parts along the state's coast in 2017.

Hurricane Michael in 2018 was also a Category 5 storm and roughly did about $25 billion worth of damage.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is one of America's most tornado-prone states. According to Reset Restoration Services, Oklahoma sees an average of 52 tornados a year.

The most expensive tornado to rip through Oklahoma was in 2013, when the Moore tornado touched down outside of Newcastle and stayed on the ground for 39 minutes, killing 24 people, reported World Vision. The massive storm caused roughly $2 billion in damages.

Louisiana

Louisiana's location on the Gulf Coast makes the state prone to tropical storms. The state suffered most significantly from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Nearly 2,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands more were displaced from their homes. The storm was declared the most expensive catastrophe in the U.S. from 1992 to 2018, resulting in nearly $52 billion in property damages, according to Statista.

Louisiana also deals with significant flooding, costing the state more than $100 million worth of damage to Louisiana's infrastructure, ClimateCheck reported.