European Floods Are The Worst Since 2002
Bermuda and global property and catastrophe reinsurers have yet to start counting the costs as devastating floods continue to swamp central Europe today [June 5].
Insurers and reinsurers say the flood waters must recede before they can estimate damage claims.
“There are no reliable figures at this point,” a spokeswoman for German multinational financial services company Allianz told the Reuters news service.
The catastrophe modeller Eqecat has said ongoing floods in Central Europe are the worst since 2002, when insured losses nearly reached more than $3.9 billion.
The firm says this is the most extensive flooding the region has seen in more than 70 years — affecting major cities in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland.
Water heights in Germany have reached the highest levels in the country’s history, said modeller AIR Worldwide. Water levels in Passau, a city at the intersection of three rivers including the Danube, are unprecedented since records began in 1501. Electricity is shut off and tens of thousands have been evacuated, some in boats.
Germany’s “Spiegel Online” reported an initial financial loss estimate of about $3.9 billion in Austria.
Forty Czech Republic cities are on flood watch, with a state of emergency declared in Prague, Usti, and South and Central Bohemia, and other areas as the Moldau River and two others overflow.
A report in the “Financial Times” on Monday [June 3] that pension funds and other money managers were helping to boost the supply of reinsurance on offer, prompting reinsurance prices to fall, was hurting reinsurance shares on global stock markets today.
Woman wakeboards along flooded Czech street
