2017 Set a Record for Losses From Natural Disasters. It Could Get Worse.
4, 2018
Insurers are set to pay out a record $135 billion to cover losses from natural disasters in 2017, the world’s largest reinsurer
said Thursday, driven by the costliest hurricane season ever in the United States and widespread flooding in South Asia.
While it was still difficult to attribute individual weather events to climate change, he said, "our experts expect such extreme weather to occur more often."
The United States made up an unusually high share of global insured losses last year — about 50 percent, compared with just over 30 percent on average.
Torsten Jeworrek said that Some of the catastrophic events, such as the series of three extremely damaging hurricanes, or the
very severe flooding in South Asia after extraordinarily heavy monsoon rains, are giving us a foretaste of what is to come,
Together with Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the 2017 hurricane season caused the most damage ever, with losses reaching $215 billion.
Mark Bove, a senior research meteorologist at Munich Re, said in an interview
that losses jumped in the United States because so many of the disasters hit highly populated areas: the Houston bay area, South Florida, Puerto Rico.
" he said. that And we don’t build buildings to withstand the weather we see today,
let alone what we might see as the climate changes in the next 10 to 20 years,