DISASTER IN 2018

Jan. 28, 2019

The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) released an analysis of 281 disaster events recorded by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) in its EM-DAT (International Disaster Database).

Key findings for the year 2018:

Country most Affected: India (23.9 million people in India were affected by disasters).
Top 2 Countries affected by Total Death Toll: Indonesia (4,535) followed by India (1,388).
Seismic activity including earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic activity accounted for the majority of the 10,373 lives lost in disasters.
Extreme weather events accounted for most of 61.7 million people affected by natural hazards.
Floods continued to affect the largest number of people,4 million people, including 23 million people in Kerala, India. They caused 2,859 deaths including India (504).
Storms affected 12.8 million people last year and caused a recorded 1,593 deaths. It is anticipated that storms will be the costliest type of disaster of 2018 once final economic losses are compiled.
Wildfires in Europe and North America claimed a record number of lives as Greece (126) had the deadliest European wildfire on record, and the United States (88) had its deadliest wildfire in over a century.
Drought affected 9.3 million people worldwide.