2010 has been a record year for weather disasters around the world. We talk to some of the people who have lived through them. And, we look at the lasting impact of those disasters, as well as what they suggest about the future.

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Today's guest host was David Michael Lamb.

PART ONE

It's Thursday, December 30th.

Pope Benedict has called for soul-searching in the Catholic Church.

Currently, to have your soul-searched, the Pope suggests going through security at any US airport.

This is The Current.

The Year in Weather - Hurricane Igor

People across Atlantic Canada are still digging themselves out from a severe snowstorm. It dumped at least 30 centimetres of snow on Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador on Monday ... leaving thousands of people without power and causing millions of dollars in damage. And people there aren't the only ones feeling nature's wrath this week.

Across north-eastern Australia, people are facing the worst flooding in decades. Half of the state of Queensland has been declared a disaster zone. Three hundred people had to be airlifted to safety. And the cost of the damage is expected to be more than a Billion dollars.

According to German re-insurance giant, Munich Re, 2010 has seen the highest number of weather-related disasters since the company started keeping records, 130 years ago. Catastrophic floods killed at least 1,500 people and left millions homeless in Pakistan. Wild-fires devastated western Russia. The Atlantic hurricane season was one of the busiest on record. And 2010 has also been the warmest year since Munich Re began keeping records.

In September, Hurricane Igor hammered Newfoundland, flooding roads and houses and destroying lives. We aired a clip from Laura and Frank Blundell speaking on The Current in October. Their home was wrecked. And since then, they've been trying to decide how and where to rebuild their lives. Laura Blundell was in Gander, Newfoundland this morning.

The Year in Weather - Pakistan Monsoon Rains

Last July, northern Pakistan was hit with heavier than usual monsoon rains. What followed was the worst flooding in 80 years. Nearly 2,000 people were killed. And millions were left homeless. At the time, we heard from Shafi Naqi Jamie. He was host and project manager of BBC Lifeline Pakistan, an emergency radio operation set up by the BBC's World Service Trust to deliver essential information to flood victims and to give them a chance to share their stories with the outside world.

We aired a clip from Shafi Naqi Jamie speaking on The Current last August. Lifeline Pakistan continued to operate until earlier this month. And the impact of those floods is still being felt. Shafi Naqi was in London, England.

The Year in Weather - Gordon McBean

In total, insurance companies paid out more than 200-Billion dollars in natural disaster related claims this year. And Gordon McBean has been tracking those numbers. He is the Director of Policy Studies in the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction at the University of Western Ontario. He was in London, Ontario.

Related Links:

• Storm disruptions continue in Maritimes - CBC News
• Six months after Pakistan floods, seven million remain without shelter
  By Graeme Smith - Globe & Mail
• Queensland floods lead to mass evacuation - The Irish Times
• We don't take the threats of nature seriously enough by Ian Gillespie - The London Free Press
  

Other segments from today's show:

• The Caregiver
• Letters