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Failure to prepare for bad weather cost billions

Neglecting to prepare for extreme weather cost billions.        

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Failure to prepare for extreme weather cost the United States $1.15 trillion in economic losses from 1980 to 2010,  according to a Department of Homeland Security official report. 

The U.S. Global Change Research Program predicts future impacts of climate change will create a national economic loss of $1.2 trillion through 2050 said David Heyman, DHS assistant secretary for policy. 

The Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs committee hearing came two weeks after a snowstorm paralyzed Atlanta on Jan. 28.  The storm left hundreds stranded on highways and caused more than 7,000 flights to be cancelled. People were forced to spend the night at school and other businesses.

"One only needs to read the newspapers to affirm that in the face of named storms and other extreme weather events, large numbers of assets, and the communities that are defined by these assets and which support them, are not sufficiently resilient," Lindene Patton, chief climate product officer at Zurich Insurance Group, said during the hearing. 

Preparing for inclement weather cost less money than recovery.

In 2013 alone, The United States suffered seven weather disasters with losses exceeding $1 billion, according to the National Climate Data Center. These events included five severe tornadoes, major floods, and western drought/heat wave and overall, killed 109 people. 

Extreme weather continues to be a major concern. The East Coast is currently enduring a nasty nor'easter with predictions of 18 to 24 inches of snow on some areas. 

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