Aon Benfield, reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor, today releases its latest Monthly Cat Recap report, which provides an analysis of global natural perils in October including events in parts of the U.S., North America, Asia, Oceania, Europe and Africa.
Published by the Impact Forecasting team, Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development center of excellence, the report reveals that the month was dominated by significant flooding in Asia, Africa and Europe, the magnitude-7.7 earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia and Super Typhoon Megi hitting the Philippines as a Category 5 cyclone.
October saw the following climatological records:
– The second strongest non-tropical or post-tropical low pressure system ever recorded in the continental U.S. brought severe weather, extremely gusty winds, torrential rains and heavy snows to much of the eastern U.S. At least 75 separate tornado touchdowns were confirmed, along with 521 separate reports of damaging winds.
– The heaviest rains since 1961 in China’s Hainan province triggered floods that damaged or destroyed over 50,000 homes and other structures which affected 2.7 million people. Total economic losses were listed at CNY1.13 billion (USD169 million).
– Heavy rains and gusty winds in New South Wales, Australia led to the worst flooding in over 80 years in isolated locations of the state. Damage consisted primarily of roof damage and flooded homes and was estimated at AUD40 million (USD39 million), most of which is expected to be covered by insurance.
In Asia, monsoon rains and flooding left significant impacts to Indonesia’s West Papua, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Japan. The flooding events in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia combined to affect over 1.6 million homes and caused economic losses in excess of USD1.03 billion.
Super Typhoon Megi made two separate landfalls in the Philippines and China with winds gusting in excess of 325 kph (200 mph) and rains that triggered flash flooding and landslides. Substantial damage was caused to the agricultural, electrical and transportation infrastructures with total damages listed at PHP12.01 billion (USD281 million) in the Philippines and total economic losses of CNY2.8 billion (USD412 million) in China.
A powerful magnitude-7.7 earthquake rocked western Indonesia, triggering a large tsunami that left 431 people dead, 454 injured and 96 more missing. Water from the tsunami reportedly reached 600 meters (1,968 feet) inland, and damage reports indicated catastrophic effects occurred to nearly every infrastructure type on the remote Mentawai Islands.
A trio of hurricanes hit the Caribbean. Hurricane Paula affected parts of the Caribbean and Cuba which knocked out electricity to much of Havana but damage reports were minimal. Hurricane Richard made landfall just south of Belize City and the National Emergency Coordinator listed overall economic losses from the event at BZD49.2 million (USD24.5 million), with the agriculture sector sustaining 70% of the losses. The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility reported that claims losses were anticipated to exceed USD12.8 million for Hurricane Tomas which impacted Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. An additional USD4 million in economic damages were reported in east Trinidad.
Steve Jakubowski, President of Impact Forecasting, said: “The breadth of natural catastrophes occurring this month is a continuation of an already active year in terms of global activity. The powerful earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia, the floods across Asia, Europe, Oceania and Africa, the tropical cyclones in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian basins and severe weather across South America in October all highlight the need for re/insurers to keep informed on climatological and meteorological variances.”
Source : AON Benfield Press Release
