Aon calculates catastrophe cost
Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe model development team of Aon Benfield, recently launched its latest monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report, evaluating the financial impact of various natural disasters that occurred around the world in December last year.
It reveals a ‘complex weather pattern’ that impacted a number of different regions across the US, including the states of Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky and Texas, with at least 64 people killed, and preliminary estimates are suggesting that the total economic losses from these events could exceed US$4 billion. Insured losses are expected to approach and very possibly exceed $2 billion; losses of $1.2 billion were reported by the Insurance Council of Texas in the Dallas metropolitan area alone. The weather pattern included at least 58 tornado touchdowns, flooding of historic proportions in the Mississippi Valley and record snowfall and ice.
Elsewhere, a number of storm systems in the North Atlantic sent heavy rainfall across the UK and Ireland throughout December, with many homes flooded, and preliminary insured losses – this is based on various reports including one from the Association of British Insurers – are expected to exceed GB£1.5 billion (US$2.2 billion), with overall economic losses likely to be around £2.8 billion (US$4 billion). Additionally, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil were hit by the worst flooding in five decades, with at least 16 dead and preliminary economic losses estimated at $200 million.
Elsewhere, Typhoon Melor made a number of landfalls in the Philippines, with at least 42 dead. The country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Center estimated economic damages to infrastructure and agriculture alone at approximately PHP6.5 billion (US$140 million). A wildfire in the state of Victoria in Australia led the Insurance Council of Australia to declare an insurance catastrophe, with preliminary insured losses estimated at AU$53 million (US$38 million), while in Africa the Ethiopian National Risk Management Coordination Commission is seeking US$1.4 billion in order to combat its worst drought in three decades, which has affected at least 10 million people.