US insurers brace for $3bn winter storm damage

A series of winter storms in the US have caused a total combined economic damage of around $3 billion, according to Aon Benfield estimates.

Public and private insurers are expected to cover roughly two-thirds of the cost.

Four winter storms became Nor’easters and tracked along the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast coastlines – leading to extensive travel delays and widespread damage across more than a dozen states during the month of March. At least 10 people were killed.

The combination of heavy snowfall, freezing rain, heavy rain, high winds, and coastal flooding led to notable damage in the hardest-hit states of Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland. More than 1.5 million power outages were reported during the events.

The period also saw the first severe weather outbreak of 2018 in the US, which included the first EF3 tornado touchdown in the country in 306 days. This was the longest such EF3+ tornado drought in the country since NOAA began keeping records in the 1950s.

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