The Fort McMurray fires contributed to the highest insured loss estimates from major natural catastrophes globally in four years, reaching C$51.7 billion according to the 2016 Summary of Natural Catastrophe Events.
The Willis Re report highlights successful loss reduction efforts for catastrophes from 2011 to 2015 were sharply divergent from 2016’s spike.
The previous year’s losses were only comparable with 2012’s C$78.5 billion annual market loss.
Fort McMurray’s wildfires incurred $3.5 billion in damages, more than Hurricane Matthew (C$3 billion) or both the Elvira and Friedrike windstorms in Europe together ($C3.3 billion)
The largest 2016 disaster in terms of insured losses, however, was April’s Kumamoto earthquake in Japan that totalled above C$6.3 billion in losses.
“As our report shows, despite natural catastrophe insured losses falling in the last five years to 2016, they are still significant, and lower profile perils such as the wildfire around Fort McMurray have the potential to cause substantial losses,” John Alarcon, executive director of catastrophe analytics for Willis Re International, said.
“Importantly, our report also highlights that economic losses continue to be higher than insured losses and substantially so in some regions. Clearly the insurance industry has a significant role to play in helping economic recovery by supporting resilient societies and closing the protection gap between insured and total economic loss when natural catastrophes occur.”
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