Taiwan earthquake may deliver insurers up to $8bn bill: CoreLogic
The 7.5 magnitude earthquake that struck Taiwan's east coast April 3 may have rendered between $5 and 8 billion in insured losses, global property data analytics provider CoreLogic has said.
“Hualien County will likely see the most damage from the Mw 7.4 earthquake,” Jon Schneyer, CoreLogic dire tor of catastrophe response, wrote in a post to the company's website.
“Fortunately, Taipei’s strong building codes for modern buildings mitigated major damages,” he said to assuage fears of large loss further north in the nation's capital.
The CoreLogic estimate includes ground shaking and fire following damage to residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural properties in Taiwan. Estimates do not include damage to government buildings and transportation infrastructure. Demand surge is included in calculations.
The insurable loss estimate represents ground-up damage, excluding the impact of policy deductibles and limits, but does not exclude losses ceded to the Taiwan Residential Earthquake Insurance Fund.
A series of earthquakes struck the eastern coast of Taiwan early morning local time April 3 at a magnitude placed variously at 7.2, 7.4 and 7.5 by agencies in Taiwan, the US and Japan respectively. Four major quakes came within a two-hour period, followed by a long series of minor aftershocks.
The epicentre was just 18 km south of the nearest city of Hualien, population ca. 100,000, the largest city in the Hualien province, population 319,000. The epicentre is located some 135 km due south of the capital Taipei.
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