A recent string of natural disasters, the latest a deadly earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia, have exacted a severe toll both in economic damage and human lives throughout Asia. The U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, or UNISDR, said up to 1.6 million people could be affected by the magnitude 7.5 earthquake and the tsunami it created Friday in a central region of Sulawesi island, The Associated Press reported.

Such disasters tend to hurt the poorest people in the poorest countries most severely, even if the economic toll can be highest in more affluent countries like Japan. Annual losses from disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons average $250 billion to $300 billion, according to UNISDR, with the largest share in Asia. Indirect losses over time can be worse than the immediate costs.

Regarding the worst calamities in the past several months, the death toll from the earthquake and tsunami that hit the port city of Palu and other communities on Friday evening stood at 844 as of yesterday afternoon and is expected to grow. The extent of the damage was unknown as rescuers struggled to reach remote areas affected by the disaster. The U.N.'s relief agency believes that 191,000 people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance in Indonesia's quake and tsunami-battered region of Sulawesi, according to an assessment published yesterday, as reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP). The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the figure included around 46,000 children and 14,000 elderly Indonesians, many beyond urban areas that are the focus of government recovery efforts.

Typhoon Mangkhut, one of several powerful tropical storms to sweep through Asia so far this typhoon season, hit in mid-September. In the Philippines, the storms triggered landslides and flooding that killed at least 68 people. Latest government estimates put the damage at more than 33.7 billion pesos ($622 million), just in the Philippines — and many millions more in Hong Kong and China.

In Japan, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake on the country's northernmost main island on Sept. 6 killed 41 people, most of them buried in a massive landslide. It wrecked roads and houses in the regional capital, Sapporo, and knocked out power for the island. Local media cited Hokkaido Gov. Harumi Takahashi as estimating the cost to public infrastructure, farming and forestry at 150 billion yen ($1.3 billion), not including losses to tourism and private businesses.

In August, the earthquakes that struck Lombok in eastern Indonesia in August, the biggest with a magnitude of 6.9, did not generate a tsunami but nonetheless caused widespread damage on the island and on nearby Bali, killing more than 500 people. Damages are estimated at more than $500 million.

Apart from earthquake, landslides and flooding in western Japan killed 229 people in early July and inflicted damage exceeding $2 billion. Those storms were followed in early September by Typhoon Jebi, the strongest storm to pound Japan in 25 years. It killed at least seven people and left thousands stranded at the Kansai International Airport when a tanker came unmoored and smashed into a bridge connecting the facility to the Japanese mainland.