Recently, the increasing number of disasters has shook the world. Be it the cloud burst in Uttrakhand, India or cyclone Katrina in USA or Typhoon Haiyan in Phillipins. What is the exact amount of setback that happens because of this in this technologically advanced world? and what are some measures to mitigate natural disasters, rather than just being a policy?
For tsunami you can see on this website http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazard/tsu.shtml
This paper by Hallegatte et al. in Ecological Economics is a useful theoretical model of why multiple extreme events could have long-term, cumulative impacts in terms of economic growth.
Hurricane Mitch in Honduras in 1998. http://www.eclac.org/publicaciones/xml/6/15506/L367-2-EN.pdf. Section III paints a picture of economic developing in Honduras leading up to and immediately after Mitch, including very informative tables of indicators pre- and post-disaster.
Economic performance was favorable in 1998, but the hurricane reversed the trend. Huge losses in the agricultural sector led to a successive decrease in production in the following years.
The first part of this study can be found here: http://www.eclac.org/publicaciones/xml/6/15506/L367-1-EN.pdf
This report was published less than a year after the hurricane. More recent reports (10+ years later) provide a longer-term perspective: http://www.cridlac.org/digitalizacion/pdf/spa/doc17237/doc17237.htm (Spanish only, sorry!)
Any Disaster Large enough to destroy infrastructure, or crops will have a very
long term effect on the productivity of a region. Large Tornadoes, Hurricanes,
Fires, Tsunamis, Big Earth quakes, floods and super storms can all destroy infrastructure,
housing, factories, orchards, crop lands, roadways, etc.
Think about how long it originally took to build a city, it took decades of building
and refinement to make it look nice and work well, and comply with the needs
of a cities residents.
It can also take decades to rebuild if the natural disaster is destructive
enough.
In some sections of New Orleans, they will not rebuild, they shipped the
people to other cities because the infrastructure was gone. With the advent of
rising sea levels this is probably a good policy. If the land is below sea level,
and it gets destroyed, do not rebuild........ MOVE.
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