6 November 2015 Insurance

October cat losses to surpass $10bn: Impact Forecasting

Global catastrophe losses are expected to surpass $10 billion for the month of October, according to Impact Forecasting’s monthly catastrophe recap report.

The expected $2 billion minimum economic cost of the South Carolina and eastern US floods will place the event as one of the top ten costliest non-tropical cyclone flood events in the country since 1980. According to Impact Forecasting, public and private insurers have reported more than $400 million in payouts already.

Contributing to a record 22 global tropical cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere that have reached Category 4 or 5 intensity in 2015, Hurricane Patricia caused preliminary economic damage of around $300 million.

However, because of low insurance penetration in the hardest-hit areas, insured losses were expected to be negligible, said the report.

Steve Bowen, Impact Forecasting associate director and meteorologist, said: "October ended as one of the most active, and costly, months of 2015 for natural disasters.

“Many of the major weather events – such as record-breaking tropical cyclone activity in the Pacific Ocean, the historic South Carolina floods, and deepening global droughts – were clearly impacted by the current El Nino's growing fingerprint on global weather patterns.

“Given the increasing intensity of El Nino, it is expected that these impacts will become even more defined around the world as we enter the boreal late autumn and winter months."

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