Severe Storms and the Cost to Americans | SERVPRO of Putnam County

7/7/2021 (Permalink)

When storms do damage, we go to work to make things right. Contact SERVPRO of Putnam County to start the restoration process.

Damage From Severe Weather

The year 2020 brought about many challenges, and in the weather world, it became a record-setting year for weather and climate disasters. Of all the years in history for which we have data, 2020 was the most financially destructive.

There were 22 official weather disasters in 2020, which are storms causing at least $1 billion in damages, plus other damaging storms not counted in that statistic. Some astounding information is that in 2020 there were so many hurricanes and tropical storms that the NWS had to revert to the Greek alphabet in order to name all of them.

As we have all seen, hurricanes bring immense destruction and large amounts of monetary damage, but the high costs are not only from hurricanes. In fact, the most expensive disasters of 2020 in the contiguous United States were thunderstorms and tornadoes.

Of the official weather disasters in 2020, 14 of them were severe thunderstorms, and some wreaked havoc with ravaging tornadoes. Thunderstorms are normal, and they can happen during any season and in anywhere in the United States. And as of lately, it’s becoming quite normal to see them with the intensity that we see now.

A single storm system can become quite dangerous and disastrous without any warning. In August 2020, a seemingly typical line of thunderstorms in eastern Nebraska exploded into a derecho, which is something like a tornado but with straight winds instead of swirling ones, and this impacted more than 10 million acres of cornfields. This is almost half the state’s corn crops—that’s over 11% of the entire country’s cornfields.

While we may not typically deal with hurricanes in New York, it’s safe to say that storms definitely can take a toll. In 2020, we survived two tropical storms (Isaias and Fay), along with other storms throughout the year. One was the winter storm that happened right before Christmas.

Is This the New Trend?

We can’t help but ask ourselves, is this weather the new normal? 2020 was the 10th consecutive year with at least eight billion-dollar disasters.

2018 and 2019 combined saw a total of $136 billion in damages, and 2017 saw a total of over $300 billion, which was the highest total on record!

Thunderstorms are expected, and they’re bound to happen. But what is becoming scary is that the frequency and their intensity are showing no signs of relief. So as a home or business owner, it’s imperative to take whatever precautions are possible in order to minimize the damage to your property.

You should know that if precautions fail you, you’ve got friends in the restoration industry whose goal is to recover your valued items and restore your property “Like it never even happened.”

When storms do damage, we go to work to make things right. Contact SERVPRO of Putnam County to see how we can help.