How the costs of disasters like Hurricane Ian are calculated – and why it takes so long to add them up

Ian leveled hundreds of buildings in Fort Myers, Fla. Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. experienced 15 disasters in the first nine months of 2022 that each caused at least US$1 billion in damage. Hurricane Ian is taking the largest toll of these disasters by far – but the extent of the damage could take years to calculate with any precision.

The Conversation U.S. asked Adam Rose, a senior research fellow at the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Threats and Emergencies at the University of Southern California, to explain how experts make these estimates and what could be done to make disasters less costly.