Aon Benfield’s monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report has evaluated the impact of Storm Emma and the freezing temperatures that hit large areas of Europe over February, and has predicted that the total financial costs will be at a minimum in the hundreds of millions of dollars (US), and will very likely be higher.
Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development team, noted that some regions experienced the coldest temperatures seen in decades, and that heavy snow and freezing rain accumulation caused thousands of flights to be delayed or cancelled and many business sectors to be closed.
In addition to evident property and asset damage, local governments across Europe reported at least 88 fatalities due to adverse weather conditions and hypothermia.
The report also considers the impact of the powerful magnitude 7.5 earthquake that killed at least 75 people and injured more than 500 others in Papua New Guinea last month.
A state of emergency was declared in the region after ground shaking and subsequent landslides destroyed thousands of homes and other structures.
Although the government has allocated US $140 million for initial recovery efforts, Aon Benfield’s report expects the final costs to be significantly higher.
Aon’s report also considered several other disaster events over the month that are likely to impact re/insurers, including Cyclone Gita in the South Pacific Ocean, the magnitude 6.4 earthquake in Taiwan, severe storms across the U.S, huge hail and thunderstorms in Argentina, and a number of costly floods across Indonesia, South America, Malaysia, Canada, Malawi, and the Middle East.











