2017 has been a devastating year for the world as a whole. Many hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires have put a lot of people in a panic. California is currently experiencing some of the worst wildfires it’s seen in quite some time. The east coast is getting plummeted with hurricane after hurricane, with no end in sight. These natural disasters have caused an unknown number of damages, to people’s homes, and lives. With these damages come the need for reconstruction.

Natural disasters occur sometimes out of nowhere. There’s not much people can do about them either. That is but to evacuate. This means picking up their lives and moving somewhere safe, and leaving their things in the storm’s wake. People’s houses, cars, boats, jobs, stores, etc. All of these things have potential to be destroyed in these natural disasters. The scariest part of a storm can be returning to nothing, a devastated town, a house that’s no longer there, your car crushed under rubble. Any number of things.

There are of course precautions you can take to prevent damage, or to make it easier to fix things when you return. You can store valuables inside safes, insure your house and cars, etc. The most important thing during a natural disaster is to put yourself first before you put your material things. You can always buy them back, but you only get one life.

15. This Boat House

When you think of expensive, many people’s minds will turn towards boats. Many times owning a boat can put you in the higher echelon of money and status. However, owning a boat comes with the added risk of losing it too, and the same can be said for a boat house.

This boat house attempted to withstand the strong winds of Hurricane Irma where it once stood in Florida. The buildings structure collapsed onto itself as the winds took it’s interior with it. Surrounding houses stand tall, with minor damage. This boat house must’ve been on it’s last leg.

Hopefully the owner has insurance, or can pay to have it rebuilt, otherwise this is just another example of the strong structural damage a hurricane can produce.

14. Flooded Hotel

If we’ve learned anything from playing Monopoly over the years, it’s that hotels aren’t cheap! This hotel in San Antonio took a dive when Hurricane Harvey hit. It stood as a place of refuge for people who’s houses didn’t make it. The Holiday Inn Express only has 4 floors, but it was enough to keep away from the rising waters. Luckily no structural damage was done to the hotel, and it still stands today.

With minor structural damage, the bottom floors of the hotel have taken serious interior damage. So much so, it will cost a lot to fix up. Many of hotel’s main commodities are located on the first floor such as the kitchen, lounge area, pool, exercise room, etc. These will surely take a lot to replenish in the coming months. Hopefully the Holiday Inn company has enough to fix the place back up, and get it running again. Nice try, Harvey!

13. Casino Royale

The influx of money that goes through a casino is almost imaginary. People go to a casino to bet, play, and win money. Filled with bars, buffets, slot machines, blackjack tables, poker tables, and much, much more that have a lot of money going through it. So when a casino is destroyed in a natural disaster, it’s going to cost.

This casino was devastated by Mexico’s recent 7.1 earthquake. Along with many other buildings the top of the building collapsed into itself. The exterior suffered as well, from debris filling the parking lot, and visual exterior damage. This will take a while to clear up, and fix. Hopefully all of those lost winnings will cover it, so more people can return to fund it even more!

12. Beach House

Owning a beach house is something to be proud of. It means your financial status is well off where you can own more than one house. Unless of course someone loves the beach that much, then you can just live there. Either way beach houses can cost in the hundreds of thousands. Buyer beware however, because buying a beach house will always run the risk of a natural disaster. Like the one presented here.

This house on the coast of Florida got hit hard, when Irma made landfall. The house was built on a cliff, in what we can assume was being held up with stilts. Obviously this isn’t safe as it is, but with the added threat of a hurricane, there’s no way it could last. This beach house, and many others were effected tremendously during Irma, and cost upwards of millions of dollars.

11. Skyscraper

Mexico’s 7.1 earthquake that hit this year was devastating to say the least. It affected so many, and destroyed so much. Mexico is still recovering from this natural disaster, while the rest of the world tries to help as much as they can. The places that were effected most have seen destruction like no other. Toppled buildings, streets split in half, and so much more.

This building collapsed unto itself during the earthquake. It looked to be quite a few stories high, and was home to an office building. A skyscraper in of itself is expensive, but what the skyscraper was used for costs even more. Rebuilding will be a project in an of itself, but restoring the business that went on there will be even harder.

10. Adblock

Ads cost a lot to put up, whether it be on television, magazines, or even billboards. Once that ad is taken down, it doesn’t draw attention, which means it’s costing that business money. A prime example of this happened during Hurricane Harvey in Texas, when the forceful winds of the storm completely ripped apart an ad from it’s billboard. It’s seen dangling over a highway as passerby’s look in aw. This is a prime example of how forceful the winds of Hurricane Harvey were.

The billboard still stands, adless. Hopefully whoever put their ad there will be able to replenish it soon. This could’ve easily been more devastating seeing as there was a power line a few feet away from the dangling ad. Luckily the winds blew it in the opposite direction.

9. Warehouses

Warehouses are used by companies to store materials, and merchandise. Often times warehouses can contain a whole companies worth in materials. Shelves, and shelves stocked full of expensive items make for an expensive cleanup when disaster hits. Take for example this warehouse, microwaves, office chairs, and other electronics are scattered among wood pallets in a messy cleanup for the owners.

Unluckily during this hurricane a warehouse was hit, spreading debris, and materials everywhere. The cleanup from this will take time, and money, but restoring the items the storm destroyed, will take even more. Hopefully the company who owned this warehouse at the least has other warehouses, or stock in other locations to help replenish the one they lost. Meanwhile the wake of the hurricane stands with a mess of wood, and debris representing the dangers of weather to that degree.

8. Fractured Road

A highway serves as many people’s main transportation to other places, that is until it’s gone. This highway suffered from the force of an earthquake and fractured the ground. Exposed pipes, and fallen concrete make it impossible for anyone traveling by car to proceed. The crater produced is a few feet deep, and looks dangerous to traverse given the unknown location of underground wires or pipes.

This project will take a long time to recover from, and it will surely cost. The destruction of just the underground elements is bad, not to mention the cost of people not being able to travel on that road. People visibly upset at the fact that there only way out has been destroyed, wonder what they’ll do next. Hopefully they had rescue team to help them get to where they were going.

7. Without Power

We need electricity to live in this day and age. It has become such a stable to modern day society, that basically everything runs on electricity. So when power lines go down, and power outages plague the world, what are we to do? Most of out food and water resources use electricity, out entertainment, and even our light.

Puerto Rico was struck with a total blackout when Hurricane Maria rolled through, and took out all of it’s electricity and powerlines. Streets are toppled with loose power lines, and cables making a reconstruction an expensive one. Not only do they have to restore power to all of Puerto Rico, they also have to clean up the mess left behind from all of the downed power lines.

6. RV

Remote vehicles or RV’s are mobile homes you can take anywhere. Many people use them when taking road trips. They cut the cost of hotel stays, and are more convenient. When you’re done driving for the day you can pull over and go to sleep. Okay, maybe it’s not that simple, but it’s more convenient than a hotel stay.

Many things have been hit by California’s roaring wildfires, including homes, and this persons RV. RV’s can be upwards of thousands of dollars, and they’re hard to insure. It looks like they’re easily flammable too. This RV caught ablaze in minutes as the wildfires approached this person’s yard. Replacing this won’t be an easy task for the owners, but at least they can get a new one that doesn’t look so retro.

5. Dam

A dam is a man made structure used to keep water from getting out of control. However when natural disaster hits these dams can sometimes fail in their duties. Take the one shown here during hurricane Irma this past year. Both sides of the dam are equally as flooded.

The cleanup for this is difficult, since it’s dealing with water. The best people can do is give it time. However, cleanup teams will make the process quicker and more efficient. It looks to be the case of the water just got too high and went over the dam, which is a better circumstance to the dam breaking. A broken dam would’ve cost a lot more, and would’ve been more devastating to the other side.

4. Lifted Up

A road was completely uprooted from the ground during Mexico’s 7.1 magnitude earthquake this past year. It looks to be the entrance to a hospital or parking garage of some sort. People will surely have trouble exiting and entering the building.

A temporary fix is easy for this, since the fracture isn’t that deep, however restoring it to it’s original state is a hard feat. The most expensive part to fixing this road will be the destruction to the underground aspect of it. Whether or not there were pipes, or power lines running underneath, will for sure make this a pricey, and somewhat dangerous job.  Hopefully they have different exits and entrances besides just this one. This goes to show how dangerous and earthquake can be, and not to just things inside, but outside too.

3. Crushed Car

Material things like cars can mean a lot to some people. When we see these material things get destroyed it pains us. Cars like the one shown, can cost a pretty penny. To see it crushed to pieces under fallen rubble, makes your wallet hurt.

However, the good news is no one was in the car when it got destroyed. Hopefully the owner was insured, and they can get themselves a new set of wheels soon. The pillar that fell on the car is a good example of how dangerous it can be, no matter where you are during an earthquake. Earthquakes cause things to shake and fall, and if it’s tall enough it will cause exponential damage to the things surrounding it. It’s always important to practice safety, and know precautions in light of natural disasters.

2. Stop and Shop

A convenience store, is well convenient. It’s a store with a bunch of quick supplies to get you to continue on your day. These stores are typically privately owned businesses. Take this store called “Tecate” in Mexico City for example. It’s backside collapsed unto itself when the 7.1 magnitude earthquake shook the southern hemisphere.

A privately owned business is usually hard to get back, or repair. The owners usually pay out of pocket, or if they have insurance that can help. This could’ve cost the owners anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands to fix up. With damages like this it might as well be demolished completely, because it doesn’t look like it will ever be operable again.

1. Boats

A boat is a sign of wealth. Either you buy it for pleasure, or to show off. No matter the reason you always want to take of your boat. There are many places to do this, like boat sheds, and docks. However these solutions to keeping your boat safe may fail when catastrophic conditions ensue.

Hurricane Harvey destroyed several boats, and boat houses that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. There is no real protection if your boats are in docks, except to hope it won’t get hit. If you’re lucky you can rent out a boat garage, but as seen in this picture that doesn’t always work either. No matter how big or small your boat is, you want to try and secure it before a hurricane hits. It can be picked up from the winds and used as a dangerous projectile.