9 April 2015 Insurance

Windstorm Niklas costliest non-US event in Q1

Insured losses stemming from Windstorm Niklas and Mike, which swept through western and central Europe at the end of March, are expected to exceed $1 billion.

This is according to Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield's catastrophe model development team, in the latest edition of its monthly global catastrophe recap report, which added that Windstorm Niklas would be the costliest non-US event in the first quarter of 2015.

Adam Podlaha, head of Impact Forecasting, said: "The costly losses endured from windstorms Niklas and Mike further highlight the importance of using catastrophe models to forecast the peril in Europe. Impact Forecasting successfully released an event footprint within 48 hours of Niklas' passage – expected to be the costliest non-US event of Q1 2015 – which allowed our clients to quickly determine loss estimates while running the analysis using our Elements platform.

“As we move towards the historically costliest quarters of the year for the insurance industry in Q2 and Q3, clients will have the chance to learn more about Impact Forecasting's modelling and software capabilities at one of our five upcoming global conferences."

During March, Cyclone Pam struck the South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu, killing at least 11 people and injuring several others. On multiple islands, including an island including the capital city of Port Vila, 90 percent of homes and structures were damaged or destroyed.

Vanuatu received a preliminary insurance payout of $1.9 million from the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Pilot programme. The pilot is a joint initiative between the World Bank Group, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and their partners, with grant funding from the Government of Japan.

Impact Forecasting added that after one of the quietest starts to the US severe weather season in recent history, convective activity had increased by the end of March as two separate multi-day events caused widespread hail, straight-line wind, and tornado damage across parts of the Plains, Midwest and Southeast. Combined total economic and insured losses were anticipated to reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

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