Other economic effects are often overlooked when calculating the cost of a hurricane. Some estimates of Katrina's effect on the price of oil, and therefore transportation, put it at $20 to $30 billion extra shelled out by U.S. consumers in that storm's aftermath.
An indirect hurricane effect on the United States — and other developed nations — is the mass movement of people internally and across borders when a storm wipes out a local economy. Take the case of Jamaica, for instance, if Hurricane Dean had hit the island nation head-on.
"If you're a country like Jamaica you can't afford it," said Holland. The damage can be greater than the country's entire gross domestic product and set the nation back decades in development, he said.
Coasting to Trouble
The danger of such regional troubles is increasing in the United States as the population rises and more people move to the coasts, added David Kelly, an associate professor of economics at the University of Miami.
"For a lot of reasons, the population density along the coasts is increasing," said Kelly. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean housing and other buildings are being built with any more awareness of hurricanes. The result is that even before factoring in more hurricanes and rising sea levels, there's a growing probability of trouble on the coasts.
"There are more (hurricane) targets," said Kelly. "Many, many more targets."
Normally, people would adapt to the threat of hurricanes by building stronger structures, Kelly said. But that's not happening in Florida.
"When places like Florida put a (state-mandated) cap in insurance rates, no one is going to do that," Kelly said. There is no incentive to build a hurricane-proof house if there's no immediate financial benefit from doing so. Other U.S. urban areas which are facing a growing hurricane threat include Long Island, Tampa, Galveston, Wilmington and New York.
So will people do what's necessary to prevent Katrina-like disasters in the future? Maybe not. In the end, it comes down to human nature, said Kelly.
"People have a really hard time with very low-probability, high-impact events," said Kelly. Perhaps we'll do better in the future, but if the history of past disasters is any hint, humanity has a poor track record in planning for such troubles.
Related Links:
NOAA Storm Watch
The National Hurricane Center
The Storm Pundit
The Pew Center on Global Climate Change offers FAQ's on global warming and hurricanes.
Geotimes
How Katrina stacks up in hurricane history
