Now that 2011 is coming to a close, PC360 updates and revisits its list of top natural catastrophes of 2011. The 10 events pictured here are the largest insured-loss events for the year according to data gathered from both Swiss Re and catastrophe-modeler AIR Worldwide. Many other events occurred throughout an active 2011 aside from the ones on this list. Some of those events had larger economic losses than the ones here, but lower insured losses.
Swiss Re says in a sigma analysis that 2011 would have been the costliest year for insured losses from catastrophes—both natural and manmade—if Japan had been more fully insured for earthquake risk. As it stands, Swiss Re estimates that 2011 will see approximately $108 billion in insured manmade and natural catastrophe losses, second only to 2005, when insured catastrophe losses reached $123 billion.
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# 10 Typhoon Talas
(AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
Sept. 3-5
A surfer rides a wave at Nishihara beach in Fujisawa, near Tokyo, as Typhoon Talas approaches.
Talas was the 12th named storm of the 2011 Pacific typhoon season. It struck Kochi Prefecture on Japan's Shikoku Island on Sept. 3, moving slowly across the island as well as the central part of Japan's main island of Honshu.
The "unusually large" storm brought record rainfall to cental and western Japan, as well as damaging winds, according to AIR Worldwide. By Sept. 5, Talas had moved offshore into the Sea of Japan by Monday. It claimed over 50 lives.
AIR estimates insured losses of between $150 million and $600 million.
# 9 U.S. Winter Storm
(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Feb 1-2
Fans pose for photographs near the NFL Super Bowl Experience in Dallas.
The winter storm affected nearly 100 million people from Texas and Oklahoma, up through Chicago and on to New England. Thirty states were hit in all, with some seeing up to a foot and a half of snow as well as high winds and ice, AIR says.
The modeler says insured losses include damage to automobiles, residential, commercial, and industrial property, as well as business interruption losses and additional living expenses doled out by insurers.
AIR estimates insured losses of between $790 million and $1.4 billion.
# 8 Cyclone Yasi
(AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
Feb. 2
Cyclone Yasi may have destroyed Nathan La Fauci's home, but it spared a poster of his favorite band, Metallica.
The fast-moving cyclone hit Queensland, Australia around midnight on Feb. 2 as a Category 5 storm, damaging and destroying homes, uprooting trees and knocking down power lines. Reportedly as many as 180,000 homes were without power.
AIR estimates insured losses of between $354 million and $1.5 billion.
#7 Australia Floods
(AP Photo)
January
Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium after January flooding.
A month before being struck by Cyclone Yasi, Queensland, Australia was hit with flooding from rain that began Dec. 25. In February, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) said its members had received about 38,460 claims, with nearly hal for residential properties. More than half of the claims came from the city of Brisbane.
Swiss Re estimates insured losses of $2.3 billion.
#6 Hurricane Irene
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
August 21-28
President Barack Obama and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie walk flood-damaged areas of Wayne, N.J. after Hurricane Irene.
While seen mainly as a flood event, Hurricane Irene may still yet crack the top-10 costliest storms in U.S. history if insured losses are in the mid-to-high range of estimates. Hurricane Jeanne in 2004 currently holds that distinction, with insured losses of about $4.15 billion
Irene made U.S. landfalls in North Carolina; Little Egg Inlet, N.J. and Coney Island, N.Y. as a Category 1 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center. It then moved up the East Coast where it dropped more than a foot of rain on some areas. Vermont in particular experienced "its worst flooding in a century," according Tim Doggett, principal scientist at AIR.
Swiss Re estimates insured losses of $4.9 billion for Irene. AIR estimates insured losses of between $3 billion and $6 billion.
#5 U.S. Tornadoes
(AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)
April 22-28
In this April 28 file photo, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and his wife Dianne visit the remains of a pawn shop in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
More than 330 tornadoes struck five Southern states—including the one that razed Tuscaloosa. Also severely hit were towns in Mississippi, Oklahoma, Georgia and Tennessee.
AIR estimates insured losses of between $3.7 billion and $5.5 billion. Swiss Re estimates insured losses of $7.3 billion.
# 4 U.S. Tornadoes
(Bryant Rousseau, PC360)
May 20-25
Tornado outbreaks affected Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Minnesota and Kansas—including the devastating EF5 twister that leveled Joplin, Mo. on May 22. That twister killed 159 people. Economic losses for the tornado outbreak are estimated at $7 billion.
Missouri regulators recently reported that a judge has approved a proposal to allow Missouri Farm Bureau to assume the operations of three insurers made insolvent by the Joplin tornado. The insurers are Barton Mutual Insurance Co., Gateway Mutual and Cape Mutual.
AIR estimates insured losses of between $4 billion and $7 billion for the series of tornadoes in May. Swiss Re estimates insured losses of $6.7 billion.
#3 Thailand Floods
(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
July–December
Heavy rains began in July and fell heaviest in October and November. The resulting floods have submerged major industrial areas containing factories belonging mostly to Japanese companies, disrupting the manufacture of electronic key components. Hundreds of people have been killed.
Swiss Re estimates insured losses of between $8 billion and $11 billion.
#2 New Zealand Earthquake
(AP Photo/New Zealand Herald, Sarah Ivey)
Feb. 22
The Magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand, which had been hit by a Magnitude 7.0 quake only five months earlier.
181 people were killed in February quake, which knocked down structures that had survived the September event.
Swiss Re puts total insured losses at $12 billion.
#1 Japan Earthquake & Tsunami
(AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)
March 11
A Magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the coast of Tohoku—the strongest ever registered in Japan. The quake also caused a massive tsunami that was more than 25 meters deep (82 feet) and extended inland about 10 kilometers (nearly 6.25 miles).
Swiss Re estimates insured losses at $35 billion. AIR estimates insured losses of between $19 billion and $30.7 billion.
(AP Photo/The Yomiuri Shimbun, Yasushi Nagao)
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