Natural disaster events in June 2017 have incurred the global economy more than $5bn in losses, largely due to a number of severe major weather events in the United States, according to
Aon Benfield's Global
Catastrophe Recap report.
The report, launched last week by Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield's catastrophe model development team, revealed that large hail, tornado touchdowns, straight-line winds, and isolated flash flooding all added to an aggregated economic loss that was expected to reach US$3.0bn, at least US$2.0bn of which total were expected to be minimally covered by public and private insurance entities.
The most significant event from a financial perspective was the series of powerful and fast-moving thunderstorms that hit Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan on June 11, with insured losses likely to reach US$1bn and overall economic cost estimated at roughly US$1.4bn.
"Costly impacts resulting from severe convective storms were not solely confined to the United States in the month of June,” said Adam Podlaha, global head of Impact Forecasting.
“Parts of Europe – notably Germany – incurred a significant cost resulting from large hail as the industry continues to get a better handle on using catastrophe models to further understand impacts from the peril. Lightning was also the primary cause of several major wildfires in South Africa; expected to result in one of the costliest payouts for a natural disaster in the local industry's history."
Meanwhile, major flooding impacted at least nine provinces in southern China, causing aggregate economic losses of US$2.4bn – the costliest individual global natural catastrophe in the month of June.
Other weather events that occurred during the month include the following:
- A thunderstorm activity in Europe, which caused US$455m in insured losses;
- A torrential monsoonal rainfall that led to devastating floods and landslides in Bangladesh and neighbouring northeast India, causing at 169 deaths;
- Other flood-related events in Asia, including China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and India, which resulted to at least 312 fatalities;
- Significant floods in Central America, Chile, and Western Africa;
- Strong thunderstorms in Western Cape in Southern Africa, which sparked several catastrophic fires, incurring the local insurance industry US$305m in losses;
- Wildfires in Portugal, which killed 64 people and cost the local government an estimated US$565m;
- Two tropical storms in North America;
- An offshore magnitude-6.3 earthquake in the Greek island of Lesbos, damaging more than 1,100 homes.
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