Cyclone Xaver, which heralded the first week of December by sweeping devastating wind and rain across Northern Europe, may cost the insurance industry between $962 million and $1.9 billion in losses, says AIR Worldwide.
Xaver hit Scotland on Dec. 5 with hurricane-strength winds and moved across the North Sea to the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany with torrential rain and storm surge that caused travel delays, power outages and property damage over two days. It left nine people dead.
The majority of damage occurred in Denmark, Germany and the U.K. "Reported observation data for the storm include gusts up to 92 and 98 miles per hour in areas along the Danish and German coasts," says Gerhard Zuba, senior principal scientist at AIR Worldwide.
"Comparisons have been made between Xaver and winter storms Christian, which struck earlier this year, and Anatol in 1999, which also caused significant losses in Denmark."
Christian, the first named storm of the 2013/2014 European storm season, just struck the same region in late October, causing insured losses between $1.58 billion and $3.3 billion.
"This sort of clustering is typical for the region, where seasons with very low activity and corresponding damage can be followed by seasons with very high activity and correspondingly high accumulations of insured losses," says Zuba.
Xaver submerged several of Hamburg's harbor streets below a 13 foot surge, causing the city to close all of its 38 flood gates. London saw a difference of 6.5 feet in water height between the front and back of the Thames Barrier. It closed the barrier for two days to prevent the surge from reaching London.
The barrier was also closed during a comparable event in 1953, when a destructive February storm caused damage in the U.K. and Netherlands.
AIR says that Xaver's damage was worst to building exteriors, such as roofs, windows and cladding, rather than to their structures. While the size of individual claims is expected to be low, their volume will make up the majority of the losses. Flood and coastal storm surge losses will likely be significant.
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