Flooding on the Mississippi River and its tributaries throughout Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and nine other states caused an estimated $6.2 billion in damage in 2019, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its annual National Climate Report, released Jan. 15.
The total amount from last year’s Midwest flooding places it as the 51st costliest weather disaster since NOAA began tracking the cost of floods, hurricanes, severe storms, droughts, wildfires and winter storms in 1980. There is no immediate end in sight to the heavier rains and other effects of climate change, NOAA scientists said.