Extreme Storms Are Really Costing Us | SERVPRO® of Jefferson County

7/9/2021 (Permalink)

When storms do damage, we go to work to make things right. Contact SERVPRO of Jefferson County to start the restoration process.

You don’t have to tell New Yorkers that 2020 was a dubious year. But it goes deeper than you might realize—not only did the year see a global pandemic and a months-long lockdown across the country, it also broke records for severe storms and extreme weather.

In fact, 2020 saw more weather disasters than any previous year on record.

A “disaster” weather event is defined as one in which there is at least a billion dollars in damage, and 2020 saw a history-making 22 of these events hit the United States. There were so many Atlantic storms, in fact, that the NWS exhausted its list of names before the year was over and had to resort to its backup nomenclature, the Greek alphabet, for only the second time ever.

Here in upstate New York, we saw record-setting snow events, and our neighbors just to the south saw the wrath of Hurricane Isaias and other heavy storms.

Not Just Hurricanes

Hurricanes are the most common thought when it comes to financially disastrous weather, but it turns out that the most expensive disasters of 2020 in the contiguous United States were thunderstorm systems and the tornadoes some of them birthed: indeed 14 of the 22 classified weather disasters were thunderstorms or storm-related.

Not Just 2020

We can hope that the destruction of 2020’s storms was an aberration, and that following years will treat us more kindly, but to be realistic it seems that 2020 was just following a trend toward more extreme annual weather patterns. 2018 and 2019 joined forces to cause for $136 billion in damages, and 2017 begat a record-high $300 billion in weather damage.

What’s more, each of the last 10 years has seen at least eight major weather disasters in the U.S., and the last six years have seen at least 10 each.

Storms can and do happen year-round and coast to coast, to it’s of vital importance that home and business owners stay alert and prepared when storms are forecast. But if those preparations should prove insufficient or become overwhelmed in an extreme storm situation, just remember that your local SERVPRO office is here 24 hours a day for emergencies.

When storms do damage, we go to work to make things right. Contact SERVPRO today to see how we can help.