2. What are some of the reasons for the rising economic costs of hurricanes and other storms?

Answer 1

There are more people and more buildings on the coast than ever before, and those buildings tend to cost more than buildings that are away from the water. People tend to think and plan on relatively short time scales, so if a very destructive storm happens only ever 40 or 50 years then people don't plan for it. Unfortunately storms like that will be hitting every years somewhere along the coast, and bringing with them much more destruction happened the last time around.

I chuckled a little bit a chocolohoma's answer, not because it was wrong, but because of the example of a $40 million dollar hotel compared to ten $50,000 houses. Where I live in San Diego, those ten homes would be $4 million each and the destruction WOULD equal the $40 million hotel! Of course, that's not quite right because the hotel would cost $200 million here.

Answer 2

Beach property is being gobbled up by hotels and wealthy private home owners who are putting up buildings ten times as expensive as those that they knocked down.

When a hurricane hits ONE 40 million dollar hotel, it does more damage than if it completely destroyed TEN 50,000 dollar houses.

Inflation. Although it is low right now, it still builds up over time. A property that cost XX 25 years ago cannot be rebuilt or replaced for less than double that or more. (at 3% a year $10,000.00 becomes $20,000. in 25 years...)

Government bailouts. People wouldn't build this crap right on the ocean if they didn't know the US government wasn't standing ready with the low-interest loans and handouts to help rebuild. If the government stayed out of it, developers would have to pay for enough private insurance to cover hurricane losses, which they don't do now because they don't have to.

There are probably many more reasons. These are just the first ones that come to mind.

Answer 3

i think because building supplies have gotten more expensive due to rising inflation everything is more expensive. also storms and hurricanes have gotten larger and more intense which causes more dammage.