'Superstorm' likely to hit California

'Superstorm' likely to hit California
Sat Jan 22, 2011 6:23AM
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The US state of California is likely to be struck by a “superstorm” which could drown entire cities and inflict hundreds of billions of dollars in damage.


The US Geological Survey recently made quite a splash with its analysis that California could theoretically experience $300 billion worth of damage from a "superstorm," reported a Press TV correspondent.

It would be a storm -- actually a series of storms -- of unprecedented proportions, at least in terms of damage.

The $300 billion disaster would dwarf other multibillion-dollar weather disasters, which have been startlingly common in the United States in recent decades.

Between 1980 and 2009, there were at least 96 separate billion-dollar-plus weather disasters in the United States alone, including 26 between 2006 and 2009, according to the US Census Bureau 2011 Statistical Abstract, which was recently released.

Damage from those most recent 26 events, which does not include damage from any weather events that resulted in less than a $1 billion disaster, or 2010 disasters, totaled roughly $78.3 billion and accounted for 306 deaths -- barely a fourth of the estimated cost of the "superstorm."

The most common billion-dollar-plus weather disasters are hurricanes or tropical storms, which have accounted for 27 of the 96 events and 51 percent of the damage.

However, droughts are also highly destructive, accounting for more than 25 percent of damage.