GENEVA, Jan19, 2012(AFP): Natural disasters such as the huge earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan caused a record $366 billion (285 million euros) damage in 2011, the UN disaster risk reduction agency UNISDR said on Wednesday.A total of 29,782 people were killed in 302 disasters last year, the body said. Storms and floods accounted for up to 70 percent of catastrophes but earthquakes were the biggest killer. Figures released by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) and the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction showed quakes claimed 20,943 lives, most of them in Japan. The earthquake and tsunami that sparked the Fukushima nuclear plant catastrophe in March was also the costliest disaster, causing damage worth $210 billion. The number of disasters was down on 2010, when 385 occurred, according to CRED figures. However 2011 practically saw a tripling in costs from $123.9 billion recorded in the previous 12 months. CRED director Debarati Guha-Sapir said: “It was notable last year that many of the disasters were in high and middle-income countries which have the resources for better disaster prevention.” In addition to the Japan earthquake, the centre cited the floods in Brazil in January, the quake that hit New Zealand in February, and Hurricane Irene in the United States in August and September.
