Insured severe weather losses have already topped $15.5 billion in the United States this year, three times the full-year average of the past 20 years, insurance brokerage Aon Corp. said.
Almost all of that comes from the outbreak of tornadoes and thunderstorms that struck the country in April and May, the company’s reinsurance unit Aon Benfield said in a report.
Eight storm outbreaks, including five that generated more than $1 billion in losses, drove most of the costs. The May 22 twister in Joplin, Mo., and the April 27 event in Tuscaloosa, Ala., now rank as the most expensive tornadoes in history, even adjusting for inflation.
Economic losses were greater than insured losses. Aon pegged the economic loss figure at $21.65 billion.
Combined with devastating earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand, flooding in Australia and unrest in the Middle East, insurers and reinsurers worldwide are estimated to have already lost more than $60 billion this year.
That has sparked a turn in parts of the insurance market, with prices rising for certain kinds of risk in certain regions after years of weakness in the market. Most industry experts agree a major U.S. hurricane impact this summer would turn a much larger segment of the market back to firm pricing.
Reporting by Ben Berkowitz, editing by Dave Zimmerman
Topics USA Profit Loss Aon
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