Zurich - Natural and man-made disasters caused $140bn of damage
worldwide last year, according to a study released on Wednesday by
reinsurance group Swiss Re.
In its annual survey of disaster
damage, Swiss Re noted that the loss total was down from the $196bn
recorded in 2012, the year that Hurricane Sandy battered the United
States.
Of the $140bn recorded in 2013, insured losses accounted for $45bn.
The
most expensive disaster for insurers was the massive flooding in
central and eastern Europe in May and June last year, with Germany, the
Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland hardest hit.
Total economic losses in the floods hit $16.5bn, of which $4.1bn was covered by insurers.
In July, parts of France and Germany were struck by severe hailstorms, causing economic losses of $4.8bn.
The
damage in Germany alone generated most of the entire insured loss of
$3.8bn - the largest ever figure for a hailstorm worldwide, Swiss Re
said.
Floods in Canada in June caused losses of $4.7bn, of which $1.9bn was insured.
The
next costliest disaster for the insurance sector was the wave of
thunderstorms and tornadoes in the United States - including a freak
twister in Oklahoma - which left insured losses of $1.8bn and inflicted
$3.0bn in overall economic damage.
Poor nations bear the brunt
While
rich countries saw the most expensive single disasters in terms of
insurance claims - the norm, given their wealthier economies and
extensive insurance penetration - it was the developing world that
continued to bear the brunt of lives lost and overall economic damage.
The vast majority of the 26 000 disaster deaths last year - up from 14 000 in 2012 - were in developing nations.
Asia, where like other poor regions only a small percentage of the population has insurance, was hardest hit.
Typhoon
Haiyan in the Philippines in November brought some of the strongest
winds ever recorded, coupled with heavy rains and strom surges.
Some 7 500 died or went missing, and over 4 million were left homeless.
Haiyan inflicted $12.5bn in economic damage, of which insured losses represented just $1.5bn, Swiss Re said.
The
second biggest humanitarian disaster was the June flooding in India,
which claimed 6 000 lives. It did not make it into Swiss Re's top ten
table of economic losses and insured damage.
Thousands of lives
were saved when Cyclone Phailin made landfall in India in October, Swiss
Re underlined, hailing the country's effective risk reduction programme
which included a pre-planned evacuation drive.
But with Phailin
destroying some 100 000 homes and more than 1.3 million hectares of
farmland, total economic losses were $4.5bn, of which just a tiny
proportion was insured.
Swiss Re said the insurance industry needed to rethink how it could help the wider world deal with the fallout of disasters.
"The
protection gap, the difference between total losses and insured losses,
has progressively widened over the last 40 years," it said.
"Disaster
events continue to generate increasingly total losses alongside ongoing
economic development, population growth and urbanization," it added.
It
also echoed concerns that climate change driven by emissions of
heat-trapping greenhouse gases was expected to lead to more frequent and
severe extreme weather.
- AFP
