Hurricanes: more people, more wealth, not stronger storms

The economic cost of hurricanes in the US has increased as a result of greater population, infrastructure, and wealth along coastal areas, not because there have been more intense storms, a study says.

The US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency's (Noaa) paper, published in Natural Hazards Review, reported that economic hurricane damage in the US had been doubling every 10 to 15 years.

And it added that if more people continued to move to the hurricane-prone coastline, future economic hurricane losses could be far greater than previously seen.

Read the full report here (PDF)

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