Daylight pours in through the damaged roof of a classroom at Springfield Elementary School, which has remained closed since Hurricane Michael hit, in Panama City, Florida.

(AP Photo/David Goldman)

At a Glance

The Congressional Budget Office report says damages will cost taxpayers about $17 billion per year. The report highlights the economic costs of climate change.The agency recommends reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Hurricane winds, storm surge and floods could result in as much as $54 billion annually in economic damage across the U.S in coming years, according to a from the Congressional Budget Office.

The CBO report predicts up to $34 billion in damage to homes, $12 billion to the public sector and $9 billion to private businesses from an increasing number of costly storms battering the country each year. The net cost to taxpayers is expected to be $17 billion per year.

The estimates are average one-year costs based on modeling and other data analysis. The report points out that the numbers could be higher in years with catastrophic events, and lower in calmer years.

The report illustrates yet another of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

“Without limits on emissions, the rise in sea levels is predicted to accelerate in the second half of this century, followed by potentially large increases in sea levels in coming centuries,” the CBO reads. “Those increases, along with other changes caused by warming (such as increases in droughts and the spread of certain invasive species), will adversely affect economic output in the future."

(MORE: Winter Storm Wesley Impacts: Power Outages, Schools Closed, Flights Canceled, Interstates Shut Down)

“” have now become the norm in the U.S. and worldwide. There were 39 such disasters across the globe in 2018, with 16 of those in the U.S., including Hurricane Michael. The U.S. number is the second-highest total on record. The highest was 20 billion-dollar disasters in 2017.

Less than four months into 2019, we’ve already seen , Winter Storm Quiana and Winter Storm Ulmer. Winter Storm Wesley, pummeling its way across the U.S. today, could add to that tally, as might recent flooding in the Midwest and Plains.

The CBO analysis focused on hurricanes, with their winds and storm surge, because they are typically the disasters.

The CBO report recommended four steps to reduce the financial impact of future storms, the first being "a coordinated effort to significantly reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases."

Other recommendations include increased increase federal funding to collect current information on flood risks to help people make more informed decisions about where to locate homes and businesses, expand flood insurance requirements to increase the number of households enrolled, and call on local and state governments to foot more of the bill and discourage development in vulnerable areas.