The Disaster Center-- Oct. 23, 2011 - 3:23 PM EDT -- CRED, reported today that for the first half of 2011 (PDF): 108 disasters, killed 23,638 people, affected people 43,784,902 worldwide, and caused economic damages of 253,230 million $US. Most of the economic damages (210,000 million $US) and people killed (20,319) were as a result of the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster that affected Japan. In third place for number killed and economic damages was the April storm that affected the US.