The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season was forecasted to be a busy one, and so far it has lived up to the expectations. Halfway through the season, the number of tropical storms and hurricanes has almost equaled the average totals for an entire season. Fortunately, we have yet to experience a major disaster comparable to some of the past decades most severe storms, which brought billions of dollars of damage, death and devastation to the regions they bombarded. Here are the eight costliest hurricanes of the 2000s.

1. Katrina $125 billion (2005)

Hurricane Katrina is by far the most devastating natural disaster in modern US history. The storm itself was massive: it was a category 5 with 175 mph winds in the Gulf, though it weakened to a category 3 as it made landfall enough to cause New Orleans levees to fail, flooding up to 80 percent of the city. A great American town was nearly wiped out, and in the process, 1,833 people were killed. People from across the country and world sat in shock as they viewed the now iconic images of people pleading for help from their rooftops and outside of the Superdome. Often overlooked is the fact that the Mississippi Gulf Coast was decimated by the storm surge as well. Katrina caused us to examine every aspect pertaining to how we should deal with hurricanes.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Hurricane Earl lashed the northeastern Caribbean on Monday as a still-growing Category 3 storm on a course that could threaten the eastern United States later this week.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Earl, which formed on Sunday, was already a major hurricane with sustained winds of 120 mph (193 kph), and it was likely to keep gaining force.

“Interests from North Carolina all the way to Maine should keep an eye on the system,” said Jessica Schauer, a meteorologist at the Hurricane Center.

The storm’s forecast track would run north of the Caribbean, then bend to the north, roughly parallel to the U.S. East Coast. The hurricane center said it is early to say what effect Earl would have on the U.S.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Three U.S. troops died in blasts in Afghanistan, bringing the death toll for July to at least 63 and surpassing the previous month’s record as the deadliest for American forces in the nearly 9-year-old war. In Kabul, police fired weapons into the air Friday to disperse a crowd of angry Afghans who shouted "death to America," hurled stones and set fire to two vehicles after an SUV was involved in a traffic accident that killed four Afghans on the main airport road, according to the capital’s criminal investigations chief, Abdul Ghaafar Sayedzada.

SUVs often are associated with foreigners, but it remained unclear who caused the accident because the occupants fled the scene. Afghan police, some carrying riot shields, converged on the area, firing warning shots into the air to disperse the protesters. Sayedzada said the crowd burned two foreigners’ vehicles, causing heavy black smoke to rise from the scene. "It is our right to raise up our voice and protest when innocent Afghans are harmed," said Azizullah, a 25-year-old student, who like many Afghans uses one name.

He said foreigners were in the vehicle that struck the car, killing the Afghan civilians. Ahmad Jawid, who also was at the scene, asked: "Are we not Muslims? Are we not from Afghanistan? Infidels are here and they are ruling us. Why?" A fatal traffic accident caused by a U.S. military convoy in 2006 triggered an anti-American riot in Kabul that left at least 14 people dead and dozens injured.

The three U.S. service members died in two separate blasts in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, a NATO statement said Friday. It gave no nationalities, but U.S. officials said all three were Americans. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity pending notification of kin. U.S. and NATO commanders had warned casualties would rise as the international military force ramps up the war against the Taliban, especially in their southern strongholds in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan last December in a bid to turn back a resurgent Taliban.

British and Afghan troops launched a new offensive Friday in the Sayedebad area of Helmand to try to deny insurgents a base from which to launch attacks in Nad Ali and Marjah, the British military announced. Coalition and Afghan troops have sought to solidify control of Marjah after overrunning the poppy-farming community five months ago. In Kabul, a crowd threw stones and set fire to an SUV after a traffic accident Friday in which two Afghans were killed and two were injured, according to traffic official Abdul Saboor. SUVs are associated with foreigners, but Saboor said the occupants of the vehicle fled the scene.

The tally of 63 American service member deaths in July is based on military reports compiled by The Associated Press. June had been the deadliest month for both the U.S. and the overall NATO-led force. A total of 104 international service members died last month, including 60 Americans. The American deaths this month include Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin McNeley from Kingman, Arizona, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Jarod Newlove, 25, from the Seattle area. They went missing last week in Logar province south of Kabul, and the Taliban announced they were holding one of the sailors.

McNeley’s body was recovered there Sunday, and Newlove’s body was pulled from a river Wednesday evening, Afghan officials said. The Taliban offered no explanation for Newlove’s death, but Afghan officials speculated he died of wounds suffered when the two were ambushed by the Taliban. The discovery of Newlove’s body only deepened the mystery of the men’s disappearance nearly 60 miles (100 kilometers) from their base in Kabul. An investigation is under way, but with both sailors dead, U.S. authorities remain at a loss to explain what two junior enlisted men in noncombat jobs were doing driving alone in Logar — much of which is not under government control.

Newlove’s father, Joseph Newlove, told KOMO-TV in Seattle he too was baffled why his son had left the relative safety of Kabul. "He’s never been out of that town. So why would he go out of that town? He wouldn’t have," he said. Senior military officials in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, said the sailors were never assigned anywhere near where their bodies were found.

A NATO official in Kabul shot down speculation the two were abducted in Kabul and driven to Logar — the same province where New York Times reporter David Rohde was kidnapped in 2008 while trying to make contact with a Taliban commander. Rohde and an Afghan colleague escaped in June 2009 after seven months in captivity, most spent in Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan. Elsewhere, violence continued Friday.

Four Afghan civilians were killed and three were injured when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Zabul province of southern Afghanistan, provincial spokesman Mohammed Jan Rasoolyar said. When police arrived at the scene, Taliban fighters opened fire. One insurgent was killed, the spokesman said.

In Kandahar, a candidate in September’s parliamentary election escaped assassination Friday when a bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded, city security chief Fazil Ahmad Sherzad said. The Interior Ministry said a woman and a child were killed and another child was wounded.

BREAKING NEWS – 3 more US troops die in southern Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — Three more U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan, bringing the U.S. death toll for July to at least 66 and making it the deadliest month for American forces in the nearly 9-year-war.

A NATO statement Friday said one service member died following an insurgent attack and two others were killed in a roadside bombing the same day in southern Afghanistan. A U.S military official confirmed all three were American troops. Earlier in the day, a U.S. military official confirmed three other American service members died in two separate blasts in southern Afghanistan on Thursday. The six deaths raised the U.S. death toll for the month to at least 66, according to an Associated Press count. June had been the deadliest month for the U.S. with 60 deaths.

In one of the deadliest 24-hour periods in weeks, 8 U.S. soldiers were killed in three separate attacks while the Taliban kidnapped 5 Afghan health ministry employees, all events occurring in southern Afghanistan. 

 3 U.S. troops died when an insurgent rammed an explosive-laden automobile into the main gate of an elite Afghan police compound in Kandahar, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban, as other militants unleashed automatic fire. An Afghan police officer and five Afghan civilian workers were also killed in the brazen attack. Four other U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb and a fifth died during a small-arms firefight. These most recent deaths brings the tally of U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year to 238, compared with 317 for all of last year. So far in July, 45 coalition troops have died in Afghanistan, 33 of them Americans, following the previous month’s trend, which was the deadliest for NATO-led force, with 103 ISAF soldiers killed. Also in Kandahar, Haji Khalifa a pro-government cleric, who is also a member of the Pajawai district shura, was gunned down in a mosque while he was praying on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, just a few hours ago five health ministry employees were kidnapped from Kandahar as well, according to Provincial spokesman Zulmi Ayubi. Gunmen stopped a medical team’s car that was en route to Kandahar from Maiwand district and abducted two doctors, a pharmacist, a nurse and their driver. The Taliban have intensified a campaign of assassinations and kidnappings of government workers and tribal leaders recently in a backlash against the increased presence of international forces in Kandahar. Insurgents are trying to intimidate and make the point they can still operate despite the extra security. Army Brig. Gen. Ben Hodges, a top U.S. commander in southern Afghanistan, said security will improve in coming months as additional American and Afghan forces move into unstable areas, saying: 
“It’s a rising tide. And that tide is starting to come in now. We’re going to start feeling those positive effects here as July turns into August."

In the contested district of Zhari, where the government has far less control than in Kandahar city, Hodges said combat operations will not begin until the Afghans are ready to take the lead in governing. He said U.S. forces could easily clear these areas but doing so without establishing local governance and permanent security forces would make it a fruitless exercise. Hodges has learned from NATO’s experience in neighboring Helmand that it is easier to win a military battle than it is to subsequently implement effective governance.
 

Five more US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, sending Nato’s death toll to 12 in 24 hours. Four soldiers belonging to the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) were killed by a bomb in southern Afghanistan, Nato said. Another US soldier died in a separate attack also in the south of the country.

It comes a day after three US soldiers and five Afghan civilians died in a suicide attack in Kandahar province.The latest deaths came as a major manhunt was under way in Helmand province for the rogue Afghan soldier who killed three British soldiers from the Royal Gurkha Rifles on Tuesday.  A British Royal Marine was also killed on Tuesday in a separate incident in Helmand province. So far in July, 45 international troops have died in Afghanistan, 33 of them from the US. June saw more than 100 international troops killed – the bloodiest month of the nine-year-old war.

"We are in the toughest part of this fight," Isaf spokesman Brig Gen Josef Blotz told reporters. Late on Tuesday a suicide bomber detonated explosives at the gate of the headquarters of an elite Afghan police unit in Kandahar. Minutes later, insurgents opened fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Three US soldiers, an Afghan policeman and five civilians died in the attack. Isaf said that Afghan police backed by international forces fought back "and prevented insurgents from penetrating the compound perimeter". The Taliban later admitted they were behind the attack. Insurgents have stepped up attacks on government targets in Kandahar – the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban – as US reinforcements are poised for an expected Nato offensive in the city. The three British soldiers who died on Tuesday were serving with 1st Battalion, The Royal Gurkha Rifles, in Nahr-e Saraj.

Nato said it was using every "asset" within its power to find the Afghan soldier responsible and those who may be helping him. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has vowed a full investigation into the shooting. One of the three was shot and the other two were killed by a rocket-propelled grenade. On Wednesday, Afghan army spokesman Gen Ghulam Farook Parwani identified the rogue soldier as Talib Hussein, from the minority Hazara community which is usually opposed to the Taliban. He said the man’s motive was still unclear. Nato soldiers are increasingly fighting alongside their Afghan counterparts as the West tries to transfer responsibility for security ahead of a gradual withdrawal starting next year. The Afghan interior ministry said another nine civilians were killed in Helmand province on Tuesday when the minivan they were travelling in was hit by a roadside bomb. Bombs, known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), are a common weapon of the Taliban.

Five US soldiers have been killed in separate incidents of violence in Afghanistan, Nato has said. Three died in east Afghanistan and two were killed in separate roadside bombings in the south. A sixth American died in an accidental explosion. More than 350 Nato soldiers have been killed this year. In other violence, gunmen killed 11 Pakistani Shia tribesmen in the east and one person was killed by a motorbike bomb in Kandahar. Also on Saturday, hundreds of Afghans took to the streets of the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif in protest at increasing civilian deaths.