Nasty Natural Disasters: Billions of Dollars to Recover

Nov. 6, 2007 Special to ABCNEWS.com — -- The Santa Ana winds have died down and firefighters have tamed the San Diego fires that erupted last week. But what looks to be spiraling are the federal outlays needed to return displaced homeowners to the area and rebuild damaged infrastructure.

To fight the fire alone, the bill, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), could total $100 million. Officials in San Diego estimate the overall damage to the county will be over $1 billion.

It goes to show that the recovery process from such extreme natural devastation is not a quick one. Nor is it cheap.

Click here to see America's most expensive natural disasters at our partner site, Forbes.com.

Consider the cleanup still taking place along the Gulf Coast and in the city of New Orleans. So far the government has spent $31.3 billion in present-value dollars on humanitarian aid, infrastructure repair and funding for destroyed private property. The flooding damage and property destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina makes it by far the most expensive natural disaster since FEMA was founded in 1979.

For many Americans glued to their TVs during this tragedy, the question might have been: Are their any places in the U.S. that are safe from such debilitating natural disasters?

The answer? No. Americans have been exposed to almost every natural hazard imaginable, except for events like typhoons that can only occur in the Southern Hemisphere.

While the Loma Prieta and Northridge earthquakes that struck California in the late '80s and mid-'90s caused significant damage, you'll notice the list of the most expensive disasters is otherwise populated with hurricanes.

Our calculations for the country's most expensive natural disasters come from FEMA expenditures in present-value dollars. Hurricanes dominate the list because they occur much more frequently than earthquakes. What's more, FEMA's relief structure is supplemental to insurance--and many homeowner policies don't include flood damage, but they do fire damage. Building codes, which act as a preventative measure, are stricter in California than along the Gulf Coast.