Natural disasters also caused an estimated $88 billion in
damage last year, but affected far fewer people, the Center for
Research on Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) said.
An earthquake and killer waves, which struck 12 Indian
Ocean countries on December 26, took the lives of some 304,200
people, with the most victims in Indonesia, according to the
group, part of the Catholic University in Louvain, Brussels.
"Without the tsunami, a dramatically exceptional event, the
general trend which shows a decrease in the number of deaths
would have been confirmed," said Debarati Guha-Sapir, CRED
director.
"It sounds odd, but 2004 was actually a very good year
because in fact it probably had the least number of natural
disasters in the last five to 10 years," she told a briefing.
In all, 139 million people were affected by 366 disasters
in 2004, ranging from major floods in Bangladesh and China, to
drought in South Africa, and hurricanes in the United States.
The annual death toll rose from 78,422 in 2003, when 254
million people were affected by disasters, it said.
Apart from the deadly tsunami, the highest toll was in
Haiti, where Hurricane Jeanne and floods took 5,419 lives last
year, according to CRED. Another 1,195 died in floods in India.
Floods affected the most people -- 33 million people each
in China and Bangladesh alone -- while windstorms (cyclones,
hurricanes and tornadoes) caused the most property damage.
"The bulk of the $88 billion damage comes from Japan and
the United States," Guha-Sapir said, noting high property
values there. An earthquake struck the Niigata region in
northern Japan in October while several hurricanes swept the
United States.
The center's sources range from the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies -- the
world's largest disaster relief network
to insurance
companies including Lloyds, Munich Re and Swiss Re.
