Europe Flooding Costliest Insured-Loss Event in Mild First Half of Year

Flooding across Central Europe in May and June tops the list of costliest natural insured-loss events in a relatively mild first six months of 2013, according to Aon Benfield's Impact Forecasting.

Global insured losses for 2013's first half were $20 billion, Impact Forecasting says, down 20 percent from the 10-year January-June average (2003-2012) of $25 billion.

The flooding in Europe is expected to cost insurers at least $5.3 billion, mostly attributable to damage in Germany, says Impact Forecasting.

The firm says there were six other billion-dollar insured loss events in 2013's first half, with four occurring in the U.S. “The costliest singular U.S. event, at $2.5 billion, resulted from a stretch of severe weather (May 18-22) that was highlighted by an EF-5 tornado in Moore, Oklahoma that damaged or destroyed as many as 13,000 homes and other structures,” Impact Forecasting says.

Additional billion-dollar flood events were registered in Canada and Australia. 

Impact Forecasting says roughly 50 percent of the insured losses during the first half of the year occurred in the U.S., down from 83 percent in 2012's first half, but above the 35 percent in 2011. That year, Asia-Pacific losses dominated the first half, including the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan, floods in Australia, and an earthquake in New Zealand.

“The first-half percentage of global economic losses in 2013 that were covered by insurance was roughly 24 percent, which is slightly below the longer term 10-year average of 28 percent,” says Impact Forecasting. “The larger disparity between the economic and insured loss is indicative of multiple significant catastrophe events occurring in areas where insurance penetration or specific peril coverage remains low.”