Hurricane Michael may leave USD15bn financial impact: Aon

Aon’s Impact Forecasting team recently launched the latest edition of its monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report, which evaluated the impact of the natural disaster events that occurred worldwide during October 2018.

The report highlighted that Hurricane Michael killed 45 people in the US, as it became the strongest tropical cyclone on record to strike the Florida Panhandle and the fourth strongest hurricane to make landfall on the US mainland.

While the Panhandle was most severely impacted by the hurricane, additional wind and flood-related damage was recorded throughout parts of Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. Total economic losses from Michael – including physical damage and net loss business interruption – was forecast to exceed USD15 billion, with public and private insurers likely to incur payouts of at least USD8 billion.

Meanwhile, a complex severe weather outbreak impacted much of Italy and other countries across Southern and Central Europe during the last week of October and early November, killing 29 people in Italy alone as flooding, landslides, severe winds, and strong waves left widespread damage in the hardest-hit Italian regions of Liguria, Veneto, Lazio, and Trentino-Alto Adige. Total economic losses were expected to exceed USD3.4 billion, including a minimum of USD1.1 billion in Veneto alone. Additional economic impacts of at least USD270 million were registered in Austria.

Other costly and deadly flood events swept through Europe during the month – including the extratropical remnants of Hurricane Leslie coming ashore in Portugal – with a combined economic loss likely to minimally reach into the hundreds of millions (USD).

Further natural hazard events to have occurred worldwide during October include: typhoon events in Asia-Pacific, notably Super Typhoon Yutu; landfalling storms in Japan, including Typhoon Trami and Typhoon Kong-Rey; Cyclone Titli in India; resultant storm surge, high winds and inland flooding killing at least 85 people, 5.9 magnitude earthquake off the northern coast of Haiti, which killed at least 18 people, injured more than 540 others, and damaged or destroyed nearly 20,000 homes.