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It was a year of disasters and higher temperatures
Hurricane damage color
Photo courtesy CNN Pictured is some of the damage from Hurricane Irma in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. This home slid into the Atlantic Ocean during the September hurricane, part of an estimated $50 billion in damages, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With three strong hurricanes, wildfires, hail, flooding, tornadoes and drought, the United States tallied a record high bill last year for weather disasters: $306 billion. The U.S. had 16 disasters last year with damage exceeding a billion dollars, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-tion said Monday. That ties 2011 for the number of billion-dollar disasters, but the total cost blew past the previous record of $215 billion in 2005.