Almost 700 people died due to a series of natural disasters in the United States in 2021, the highest number recorded since 2011, according to a report released Monday by a federal meteorological agency.
The year “was marked by extremes in the United States, including exceptional heat, devastating severe weather, and the second-highest number of weather and climate disasters, costing billions of dollars,” noted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA)
The death toll from weather-related disasters in the 48 mainland states plus the District of Columbia rose to 688, more than double the 262 figure set in 2020, the agency said.
Human activity has caused life-threatening climate change and has resulted in more severe environmental events around the world, according to numerous experts on the subject. Twenty separate meteorological incidents cost the country a billion dollars or more, the second-highest number of disasters with that cost recorded in a calendar year after 2020, which had 22, the entity said.
Costly disasters included four hurricanes, three tornadoes, two floods, a polar cold snap and wildfires, droughts and extreme heat waves in the west.
“Telling” statistics
The devastating impact and trauma imposed by extreme weather and climate disasters has hit, and continues to hit, some people more than others
Rachel Cleetus, director of policy and senior economist for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called the statistics “sobering.”
“The devastating impact and trauma imposed by extreme weather and climate disasters has hit, and continues to hit, some people more than others, including communities of color, low-income communities, and communities that have weathered multiple disasters,” He said.
For example, a severe cold snap left millions of Americans without power in February, when a system of deadly winter storms washed over large swaths of America. U.S, even reaching southern Mexico.
Record low temperatures shook places ill-prepared for such conditions, overwhelming local utilities and infuriating residents who were huddled under coats and blankets and fending for themselves.
More than 20 deaths related to the storm were recorded. Hurricane Ida, meanwhile, hit the Gulf Coast as a Category 4 cyclone in late August, generating extensive flooding and leaving large areas of this heavily populated region without power.
The final blow from that storm killed at least 47 people in the northeastern United States, turning streets into mighty rivers, flooding basements and closing the New York subway. NOAA also reported that 2021 was classified as the fourth warmest year in a 127-year record period, with average temperatures of 12.5 degrees Celsius in the continental United States.
AFP
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