NU Online News Service, April 7, 1:10 p.m. EDT

Property damage and 95 deaths resulted from a flash flood in Rio de Janeiro following torrential rain yesterday.

State officials confirmed the number of fatalities, and the figure is expected to increase further, according to catastrophe modeler RMS.

RMS said 33 of the fatalities resulted from two landslides in shanty towns close to the city center.

Authorities reported that the city's transport system has been particularly affected with the majority of the streets in the city being closed due to flooding, RMS said.

Additionally, RMS noted the domestic airport, Santos Dumont, was closed for several hours on Monday evening as a result of the storm.

RMS said insured loss estimates are not yet available.

The modeling firm also did not yet have insured loss estimates for a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, but caused no significant damage or casualties, according to early reports.

The earthquake struck yesterday, with an epicenter about 40 miles off the coast of the Aceh region of northern Sumatra, RMS said.

Property damage has been limited to broken roof tiles and shattered glass, and 10 injuries resulted from falling debris, according to RMS.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami alert after the earthquake, but the warning was cancelled early this morning.

Five aftershocks have been recorded since the earthquake struck.

Meanwhile, Aon Benfield released its Monthly Cat Recap report for March, citing severe weather in Australia and flooding in the Northeast United States as the highlights.

Published by the company's Impact Forecasting team, the report highlights severe thunderstorms and flooding causing damage in Australia and the U.S. during the month.

While the Chilean earthquake that struck on Feb. 27 continued to dominate global news agendas, numerous other catastrophes occurred across the globe, including more than 10 instances of severe flooding and tropical storms.

Steve Jakubowski, president of Aon Benfield's Impact Forecasting team, which evaluates global perils for the insurance and reinsurance industry, said, "Following significant levels of catastrophe activity in the first two months of the year, March proceeded in the same vein with key economic regions being affected by heavy, prolonged periods of rain which caused widespread disruption and considerable economic and insured loss."

He said the events "round off one of the costliest ever first quarters for the (re)insurance industry, during which individuals, communities and businesses have been severely, and often devastatingly impacted."

The slow-moving Nor'easter in the U.S. in March is expected to cause damages of $25 million, Aon Benfield said.

A series of severe thunderstorms in the Australian state of Victoria on March 6 is expected to cause economic and insured losses of more than $910 million.

A separate cluster of storms in Western Australia later in the month is expected to cause $598 million in damages.

Additionally, Aon Benfield said river flooding in the U.S. Northern Plains during the month caused about $14.7 million in losses in Minnesota, and at least 15 tornadoes in the Carolinas and Florida caused about $4.4 million in damages.

Special Reports /

Rio de Janeiro Flood Causes 95 Deaths, Damage

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