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DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Economic cost of Harvey, Irma could be $290 bn: forecaster
 by Staff Writers
 Washington (AFP) Sept 11, 2017


Up to $30 bn in insured damages from Hurricane Harvey: Munich Re
Monaco (AFP) Sept 10, 2017 - Hurricane Harvey, which lashed Texas and Louisiana with unprecedented rain last month, could end up costing insurers between $25 and $30 billion (21 and 25 billion euros), German reinsurance firm Munich Re estimated on Sunday.

"It is a big estimate. The cost could climb a little bit, but not much," said Torsten Jeworrek, a member of Munich Re's management board, during at an insurance conference in Monaco.

Damage estimates for Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall in Texas on August 26 before returning out to sea to then lash Louisiana, vary from around $50 billion to well in excess of $100 billion.

However not all property was insured or fully insured.

Property insurance policies in the United States don't cover floods. Many homeowners don't take out separate flood insurance from the government, while the amounts available aren't always sufficient for businesses.

Houston and the surrounding areas saw massive flooding that not only damaged homes and cars, but also roads and bridges.

"The evaluation of losses is complex due the prevalence of flooding," said Jeworrek.

"It will take a long while, not just a few days or weeks, buy maybe months or even a year for the loss figures for the entire sector to be reliable and stable," he added.

He said insurers would likely support most of the costs, and that reinsurers would probably not be hit hard.

Reinsurers provide insurance to insurance companies which need to spread the risks of the policies the provide to clients.

A total of 42 people died in Hurricane Harvey.

The combined economic cost of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma could reach $290 billion, equivalent to 1.5 percent of the US gross domestic product, US forecaster AccuWeather said in a report Sunday.

"We believe the damage estimate from Irma to be about $100 billion, among the costliest hurricanes of all time," said the firm's CEO and founder Joel Myers.

Harvey, which battered Texas and parts of Louisiana in late August, will be "the costliest weather disaster in US history at $190 billion or one full percentage point of GDP" which stands at $19 trillion.

The report said it arrived at the figure by calculating disruptions to business, increased unemployment rates for significant periods of time, damage to transport and infrastructure, crop loss including a 25 percent drop of orange crop, increased costs of fuels including gasoline, heating oil and jet fuel, household damages and loss of valuable documentation.

Only a fraction of the losses would be covered by insurance, said Myers.

Irma struck the Florida Keys archipelago earlier Sunday and is now bearing north, bearing down on the city of Tampa on the west coast of the Florida peninsula.

Harvey made landfall in Texas in late August, causing severe damage to property and paralyzing the country's fourth-largest city, Houston, with major flooding.

DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Florida insurers could be blown away by Hurricane Irma: expert
 Washington (AFP) Sept 9, 2017
 Florida insurance companies have not been tested to see if they can withstand a historic storm like Hurricane Irma, and an industry expert warned that "all bets are off" if the damage is as catastrophic as predicted. The ferocious storm was expected to slam into Florida overnight Saturday, and had been upgraded to a maximum-strength Category Five storm went it struck Cuba late Friday. Ir ... read more
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