GENEVA: Natural disasters like Hurricane Ian and other extreme weather events have incurred about 115 billion US dollars of insured losses in 2022 to date, reinsurance giant Swiss Re said on Thursday.
It said that the sole largest loss-incurring event so far this year, caused an insured loss of $50 to 60 billion dollars alone, while total damages have topped 100 billion dollar for a second consecutive year.
The Zurich-based Swiss Re said that Hurricane Ian caused the second-biggest insured damage, after Katrina Hurricane in 2005.
Natural calamities like flooding, storms
It said that Hurricane Ian and other natural calamities such as flooding in South Africa and Australia, winter storms in Europe, and hailstorms in the United States and France caused around 115-billion-dollar losses this year to date.
Swiss Re’s head Martin Bertogg said that wealth accumulation in vulnerable for disasters areas, urban development, climate change and inflation are key factors at play.
Seven hurricanes like Hurricane Andrew
He said that Hurricane Andrew caused 20 billion dollars losses 30 years ago, it was the first such huge disaster but there have been seven such hurricanes over just past six years.
Hailstorms and floods incurred losses of over 50 billion dollars.
In February, the winter storms incurred more than 3.7 billion dollars. In February and March, torrential rains caused widespread floods in Australia that incurred about 4 billion dollars loss. –AFP/APP
