WASHINGTON, Sept 12: The US government spent nearly $62 billion on disaster relief in the two-year period ending Sept. 30, 2012, to help Americans recover from severe storms, droughts, heat waves and wildfires, a new analysis of federal data has found.

The Agriculture Department accounted for more than half of all federal disaster spending for those two years, with $28.2 billion going to the crop insurance program, according to a report by the Centre for American Progress, a progressive think tank, released on Wednesday.

Under the taxpayer-subsidised crop insurance system, the government pays 62 cents of each $1 in premiums and shares losses with insurance companies during catastrophic years, such as the two just past.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund paid out $8.8 billion in 2011 and 2012 fiscal years, when there were 25 natural disasters that each caused more than $1 billion in damage, the analysis said.

Because the federal budget year ends on Sept. 30, the report does not take into account the estimated $50 billion cost of relief and recovery from Superstorm Sandy, which hit the East Coast in October last year.

For the calendar years 2011 and 2012, including some costs from the superstorm that inundated parts of the New York and New Jersey coast, the total price tag was $188 billion. Private insurance, individuals and businesses paid for damages not addressed by federal disaster aid.—Reuters