The Resilience of German Counties to the Natural Disaster Storm "Lothar”

This article examines the economic resilience of German counties to a natural disaster. We look at the effects of the storm LOTHAR, which hit southern Germany particularly hard at the end of 1999. Our study shows that German regions were quite resilient to the storm LOTHAR. Only in particularly hard-hit hurricane regions did LOTHAR have a negative impact on the gross domestic product per inhabitant. In contrast, counties where wind speeds were lower were less vulnerable. Even in the severely affected counties, there was a very rapid economic recovery, usually within a year.