NU Online News Service, July 8, 2:36 p.m. EDT

Catastrophe losses in June cost U.S. insurers at least a quarter billion dollars, and China suffered more than $5 billion in economic loss.

In its Monthly Catastrophe Recap Report, Aon Benfield says that during the period of June 1-10, insurers in the United States received more than 45,000 claims from severe weather outbreaks, primarily in the Midwest, but also in the Northeast, paying out approximately $250 million to insureds.

Those numbers do not include losses from several wildfires that hit Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Florida, destroying close to 300 structures and burning hundreds of thousands of acres. Two people died in those fires. The cost to fight the fires was estimated as at least $160 million.

Later in the month, a stretch between June 16 and 23, storm systems hitting the central United States caused damage in the Chicago area and Churchill Downs racetrack in Kentucky.

Fire in the Southwest at the end of the month resulted in $500 million in economic damage to timber to be used for lumber, plywood and paper products.

In an email response to questions, Steve Bowen, senior meteorologist at Aon Benfield's Impact Forecasting team, says June's severe weather added to the “$15.5 billion already seen during the January-May 2011 period.”

He adds, “June was a reprieve from what we've seen this year thus far. As we head closer toward the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, the focus will continue to be on the potential for a land-falling U.S. hurricane. The U.S. remains due for a landfall, considering 2008's Hurricane Ike was the last one that we've seen; 2005's Hurricane Wilma was the last major hurricane to come ashore in the [United States].”

While the United States suffered its weather losses, China experienced heavy flooding during June that impacted at least 37 million people and submerged more than two million acres of farmland.

Flooding killed at least 199 people, damaging more than 500,000 homes and causing around $5.4 billion in economic loss.

Steve Jakubowski, president of Impact Forecasting, says China has suffered a number of costly weather events this year and the modeler is employing “the very latest risk science to help China understand the risks it faces.”

Bowen says, “There is little publicly available information on China's insured losses from natural-disaster events, but it is likely that a vey small percentage of the $5.4 billion in flood losses would be insured.”

The report also notes:

In Minot, N.D., record overflow from the Souris River flooded more than 4,100 homes in the city, causing at least $200 million in damages and reconstruction costs throughout the river basin, while in Canada, dozens of homes were inundated by the floodwaters.
Tropical Storm Arlene became the first Atlantic cyclone of 2011, making landfall near Cabo Rojo, Mexico. The storm killed at least 20 people following widespread flooding and landslides in the states of Veracruz, Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosi.
On Mexico's Pacific Coast, Hurricane Beatriz skirted the coastline and caused three fatalities.
In Asia, three separate tropical storms—Sarika, Haima and Meari—crossed the Western Pacific Ocean Basin and caused 67 deaths and $342 million in damages across parts of China, the Philippines, Korea and Vietnam.
Two strong aftershocks (of magnitudes 5.2 and 6.0) struck greater Christchurch in New Zealand during the month, leaving at least one person dead and 46 more injured. Damage was reported throughout Christchurch and its eastern suburbs due to ground shaking and resultant liquefaction and rockslides. The government has released no official preliminary loss projections. The New Zealand Earthquake Commission has received at least 22,000 insurance claims.

Special Reports /

June an Expensive Loss Month Around the Globe

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