Europe’s summer floods amount to world’s second-most costly natural disaster of 2021

The floods that wreaked havoc in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France this summer constitute the second-most expensive natural disaster of 2021.

Combined, they caused some €38 billion in damage, De Morgen reports. A total of 240 people lost their lives.

The ten biggest disasters of 2021 caused a combined €150 billion in damage, British NGO Christian Aid calculated. That’s equivalent to the GDP of countries like Algeria and Qatar.

Hurricane Ida, which raged across the United States in late August and early September, caused the most damage at $65 billion (€57 billion) and claimed 95 lives. The winter storm in February in the American state of Texas took third place with $23 billion dollars (20 billion euros) of damage…READ ON

3,600-year-old tsunami ‘time capsule’ sheds light on one of humanity’s greatest disasters

A remarkable “time capsule” from one of the greatest volcanic disasters in human history has been unearthed on the Turkish coast, providing compelling new evidence of the cataclysmic event and perhaps even the very first physical remains from one of the tens of thousands of people who likely perished…READ ON