doubling of hard drive prices caused by Bangkok flooding since July

By Noel Randewich
(Reuters) - Intel Corp warned that hard-disk drive supply shortages would hurt its current-quarter revenue, the latest heavyweight in the PC industry to caution about the effects of flooding that has crippled factories in Thailand.
The warning sent shares of the world's top chipmaker down 4.8 percent and weighed on Wall Street.
Hundreds of people have died in flooding in Thailand that has caused billions of dollars in damages since late July and disrupted international supply chains in the PC and automobile industries.
PC makers have been scrambling to buy increasingly scarce hard drives after the flooding shut down factories in the country, which is the world's No 2 exporter of the components. end quote from: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/intel-cuts-q4-outlook-supply-143410582.html

My son wanted to build a computer for my wife's best friend from childhood for Christmas but found that hard drives were now twice what they were one year ago. Since most components of desktop computers tend to go down  in price year after year he was surprised and wasn't sure why this was the case. By accident I found out why. Bangkok's disaster is affecting the whole world hard drive market by basically doubling the prices of all hard drives worldwide which are now in short supply because of Thailand's disaster. Coming on the heals of Fukushima in Japan where power still hasn't fully been restored 24 hours a day to any Japanese car maker  this affects the technology sector as well worldwide and also affects prices. As more and more of these weather disasters pile up worldwide, how long before these kinds of Weather and earth changes crises slam together and affect the world in an even more serious way?

Don't worry she'll still get her computer for Christmas.