Disasters killed 304,000 people in 2010, highest number since 1976

[News_Editor]

Disasters killed 304,000 people in 2010, highest number since 1976

2011-03-29 17:18:46 GMT+7 (ICT)

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND (BNO NEWS) -- Insurance company Swiss Reinsurance Co. on Tuesday estimated that worldwide economic losses from natural and man-made disasters were more than $218 billion in 2010 while approximately 304,000 people died in those events, the highest number since 1976.

Swiss Re. said the economic losses from disasters in 2010 were more than triple from the 2009 figure of $68 billion. The cost to the global insurance industry was more than $43 billion, an increase of more than 60 percent over the previous year, according to a stigma study carried out by the insurer.

In 2010, severe disasters claimed around 304,000 lives, compared to 15,000 in 2009. The deadliest event in 2010 was the Haiti earthquake in January, which claimed more than 222,000 lives. Nearly 56,000 people died during the summer heatwave in Russia while the summer floods in China and Pakistan resulted in over 6,200 deaths.

Natural catastrophes cost the global insurance industry roughly $40 billion in 2010, while man-made disasters triggered additional claims of more than $3 billion. By way of comparison, overall insured losses totaled $27 billion in 2009.

"Insured losses were highest in North America in 2010, where they exceeded $15 billion. Despite very low hurricane losses due to the absence of hurricanes making direct landfall in the US, a series of lesser storms throughout the year resulted in this high figure," Lucia Bevere, one of the study's authors, said.

Earthquake losses accounted for almost one third of all disaster losses in 2010. The February 2010 earthquake in Chile and the September earthquake in New Zealand were the two costliest events in 2010, and led to insured losses estimated at $8 billion and $4.4 billion respectively. Overall natural disasters claims in 2010 were in line with the 10-year average due to unusually modest US hurricane losses and in spite of notably high earthquake losses.

Incidentally, earthquake losses for 2011 will also be above average as the total insured claims for the February 22 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, are estimated to be between $6 billion and $12 billion, the study showed. The massive Tohoku earthquake that struck Sendai, Japan on March 11 is also expected to trigger significant insured losses.

"Although no long-term trend of increasing global earthquake activity has emerged, the number of fatalities and insured losses from earthquakes are on the rise," said Balz Grollimund, another author of the study. "The main reasons are population growth, the higher number of people living in urban areas as well as rising wealth and rapidly increasing exposures. Many of these rapidly growing urban areas are located in seismically active areas."

In 2010, ten events triggered insured losses of $1 billion or more. The two biggest insured losses were caused by earthquakes - the February earthquake in Chile ($8 billion) and the September earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand ($4.4 billion). The third costliest event was winter storm Xynthia in Western Europe, which led to insured losses of $2.8 billion. Three storms in the US and two storms in Australia also generated losses of over $1 billion. Property claims from the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico are estimated at $1 billion. Given the complexity of the claims, the latter figure is still subject to substantial uncertainty, Swiss Re said. The overall insurance loss is higher, as liability losses are not included in the sigma numbers.

In 2010, worldwide economic losses from natural and man-made catastrophes were estimated at $218 billion. This represents a sharp increase over 2009, when economic losses totaled $68 billion. Asia was the hardest-hit region with total damages of approximately $75 billion. Pakistan and several large regions in China experienced extraordinary rainfall during the summer, resulting in devastating floods.

"2010 was not only characterized by severe earthquakes that ranked among the deadliest, costliest and most powerful in history, but also by a series of extreme weather events, such as major floods," Thomas Hess, Chief Economist of Swiss Re, said. "Some of these flood events sadly affected countries with poor emergency preparedness and underdeveloped insurance markets."

Hess continued: "These events show the urgent need to strongly improve prevention and post disaster management in order to reduce human suffering. The rapidly increasing wealth in emerging markets should also be used to address these problems. This wealth will also allow insurance to grow and close part of the large insurance protection gap in many emerging markets, the main reason why the financial protection against catastrophes is low in most emerging markets."

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