NEW YORK - January 19, 2009 - When it comes to corporate bankruptcies, last year was ominously quiet outside the financial sector. Get ready for the storm.

In the first couple weeks of 2009, chemical company Lyondell Basell on January 6 filed for bankruptcy reorganization, followed by another chemical maker, Tronox, on January 11. Telecom equipment provider Nortel Networks also sought protection from its creditors with a bankruptcy filing on January 15.

Some bankrupt companies are being forced to take the next step as the funding needed to reorganize their businesses proves difficult, if not impossible, to come by. Circuit City filed for bankruptcy last year, but on January 16, the electronics retailer said it would liquidate all 567 of its U.S. stores.

The largest bankruptcy of 2008 was the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers and its almost $700 billion in assets. But other than Lehman, 2008 was relatively quiet for bankruptcies.

According to BankruptcyData.com, 136 public companies filed for bankruptcy in 2008. That's more than in recent years, but despite more than a year of a U.S. recession and worldwide credit crisis, the tally is only the sixth worst in the past decade.

Edward Altman, a leading expert on bankruptcy who is a professor at the New York University Stern School of Business, estimates the 2008 default rate - a measure that includes both bankruptcies and other credit troubles at corporations - was 4.5%, just one point higher than the historic average.