List of Man-made Disasters - Costs

Costs

Some man-made disasters have been particularly notable for the high costs associated with responding to and recovering from them, including:

• Deepwater Horizon oil spill, 2010: Between $60 and $100 billion.
• September 11 attacks, 2001: $20.7 billion;
• Chernobyl disaster, 1986: $15 billion estimated cost of direct loss. It is estimated that the damages could accumulate to €235 billion for Ukraine and €201 billion for Belarus in the thirty years following the accident;
• Three Mile Island, 1979: $1 billion;
• Exxon Valdez oil spill, 1989: The clean-up of oil spill cost an estimated $2.5 billion; recovery for settlements, $1.1 billion; and the economical loss (fisheries, tourism, etc.) suffered due to the damage to the Alaskan ecosystem was estimated at $2.8 billion;
• AZF chemical plant explosion, 2001: €1.8 billion

The costs of disasters varies considerably depending on a range of factors, such as the geographical location where they occur. When a disaster occurs in a densely populated area in a wealthy country, the financial damage might be huge, but when a comparable disaster occurs in a densely populated area in a poorer country, the actual financial damage might be relatively small, in part due to a lack of insurance. For example, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami (although obviously not man-made) with a death toll of over 230,000 people, cost $15 billion, whereas the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in which 11 people died, the damages were six-fold.