STATE OF EMERGENCY

U.S. Had Most Floods on Record in 2016

Since insurance giant began tracking such disasters.

The United States experienced its most floods on record in 2016, according to reinsurance company Munich Re, with 19 separate incidents nationwide and an increase from 15 floods in 2015. The floods in Louisiana in August were by far the year’s worst, with 13 people killed and more than $10 billion in damage recorded. In the U.S., a total of 91 weather-related disasters took place, an increase from 85 in 2015 and the second-most recorded by the insurance giant since it began tracking such disasters in 1980. Globally, 750 disasters caused $175 billion in damage in 2016. “Of course, individual events themselves can never be attributed directly to climate change,” said Peter Hoppe of Munich Re. “But there are now many indications that certain events—such as persistent weather systems or storms bringing torrential rain and hail—are more likely to occur in certain regions as a result of climate change.”