Tornados and Hurricanes Cause Biggest Disaster Losses in the U.S.

Tornados, closely followed by hurricanes, are the disasters causing the biggest monetary losses in the U.S. An analysis by the Insurance Information Institute, which looked at all insured losses between 1997 and 2016 found, that US$168 billion worth of damage had been caused by tornados and US$161 billion by hurricanes. The calculations include all damage incurred by the thunderstorms/tropical storms accompanying these types of catastrophic weather events.

As far as single storms go, Hurricane Katrina was the most severe storm within the given time frame, with more than US$51 billion in losses to property and human devastation on a catastrophic level.

Terrorism also features on the list and was responsible for US$25 billion in losses, making a single event, the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001, visible in this analysis almost two decades later.