Southeast China ravaged by largest typhoon in years

The strongest typhoon to hit southeast China in years has damaged 300,000 homes and ravaged crops in the region.

Typhoon Rammasun, which made three landfalls in the provinces of Hainan, Guangdong, and Guangxi on July 19, has caused substantial damage throughout the region, which typically sees only 15 percent of property risk insured.

Rammasun has significantly impacted the Philippines, southeast China and Vietnam, bringing strong winds, heavy rain, and storm surge to some coastal areas. In China, damaging wind and floods have destroyed at least 37,000 homes and ravaged 468,500 hectares of crops.

“Typhoon-related flood, which includes both rainfall driven and coastal flooding, contributes as much as 80 percent to typhoon average annual loss in China, with the coastal provinces driving the loss,” said Nikki Chambers, hazards scientist at RMS. “July to October are the most active months for typhoons in this region. On average six typhoons make landfall a year in China and typhoon Rammasun highlights the importance of accounting for all sources of typhoon losses, of which flood is the main driver.”

Within a 24 hour period up to 15 inches of rain fell in the city of Haikou, which has one of the lowest insurance penetrations in China.

Guangdong is one of the more prosperous provinces; it is the second largest province for property insurance purchases, with 41.7 billion yuan ($6.8 billion) in direct premiums for property insurance in 2012, according to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission.

The northern Philippines, which is still rebuilding after Typhoon Haiyan, was the first hit leaving  94 people dead and over 111,000 houses damaged, of which nearly 28,000 have been totally destroyed and 83,000 have been partially damaged.

In Northern Vietnam, at least eight people lost their lives and 6,000 home were affected.

Based on analysis from the RMS Philippines Economic Exposure Database, the impacted provinces in the Philippines from Rammasun contains over $100 billion of insurable commercial building exposure, $80 billion of industrial building insurable exposure, and over $215 billion of residential building exposure.

Typhoon, Matmo, with maximum winds of 150km/h, is now threatening the area ravaged by Rammasun.