Whether disasters serve as focusing events leading to measures that reduce future disaster risks is contested. Here, we study flood disasters in 23 of the world’s most flood-prone countries to assess whether catastrophic floods, those milestone events with the highest fatalities, have been followed by decreasing mortality in subsequent floods. Results from a trend analysis, controlling for flood magnitude and subtypes, find that reductions in mortality rates have rarely followed the most devastating floods.
Correction in: npj Natural Hazards volume 1, Article number: 22 (2024)
DOI: /10.1038/s44304-024-00024-9