Weather disasters claims over 2 million peoples' life in five decades

Natural calamites or weather disasters incidents have increased five fold in the world. Accoding tp World Meteorological Organization (WMO) In the 50 years between 1970 and 2019, there were more than 11,000 such disasters. Over two million people died as a result of these hazards, with economic losses amounting to $3.64 trillion. The number of weather, climate and water extremes are increasing and will become more frequent and severe in many parts of the world as a result of climate change, said WMO Secretary-General Prof Petteri Taalas. By 2030, this number could increase by almost 50% at a cost of around $20 billion a year, WMO report added.

More than 90% of the deaths related to weather disasters have occurred in developing countries. WMO says its "Atlas" is the most comprehensive review of mortality and economic losses from weather, water and climate extremes ever produced.The biggest killers have been droughts, responsible for 650,000 deaths; while at the other end of the scale, extreme temperatures took nearly 56,000 lives. Atlas surveys some 11,000 disasters occurring between 1979-2019, including major catastrophes such as Ethiopia's 1983 drought, which was the single most fatal event with 300,000 deaths, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that was the most costly, with losses of $163.61 billion.

Costs from the events also surged from $175.4 billion in the 1970s to $1.38 trillion in the 2010s when storms such as Harvey, Maria and Irma ripped through the United States. The atlas points out that, while improvements in warning systems are helping to save lives, there is much more work to be done. Only half of the 193 countries that are members of the WMO have multi-hazard early warning systems in place. Mami Mizutori, special representative of the UN's Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, said that more international cooperation is needed to tackle the chronic problem of huge numbers of people being displaced each year by floods, storms and drought.The US has sustained 298 weater and climate disasters since 1980.