After a storm, tornado, hurricane, flood, etc., bureaucrats assess damages. Speakers of English assess damage.

After a flood, one bureaucrat was quoted in the newspaper offering "a statement of damages from the storm events we had." He added that more money "would help us to recover some of the costs for the damages that occurred."

This kind of bureaucrat-speak is why God created paraphrasing, GrammarHell.com suggests. We'll simply wince at storm events and deal with damage/damages.

Garner's Modern American Usage notes that "the singular damage refers to loss or injury to person or property; the plural damages refers to monetary compensation for such a loss or injury."

The Associated Press Stylebooksays simply, "Damage is from destruction ... Damages are awarded as compensation for injury, loss, etc."

A tornado causes damage, followed by lawsuits seeking damages over shoddy construction.

Damage/damages errors are distressingly common as people follow the bureaucrats spewing this jargon. A quick run through Google News finds many, many examples of flood damages, storm damages, hurricane damages, tornado damages, tsunami damages, etc., etc., etc.

What a disaster.