As of Nov. 1, the U.S. achieved 3,295 consecutive days without a major hurricane landfall. That doesn’t mean there weren’t major storm events in October, but the worst ones hit India and Japan instead, an Aon Benfield subsidiary determined in a new report.
“With one month remaining in the 2014 Atlantic Hurricane season, the United States is close to completing yet another year without a significant land-falling hurricane event,” Steve Bowen, associate director at Impact Forecasting, said in a statement in connection to his company’s October Global Catastrophe Recap report.
On the other hand, parts of Asia faced major trouble in October, Bowen noted.
“Insurers in Asia are coping with a series of cyclones that have led to considerable damage across the Western North Pacific and North Indian Basins, most notably in India and Japan,” he said. “The past two years of cyclone landfalls in Asia—including such storms as Fitow, Haiyan, Hudhud, Phalin and Rammasun—have shown that tropical cyclones are becoming an increasingly costly peril for insurers with exposures outside of the U.S.”
Case in point: In October, Cyclone Hudhud slammed into four states in India, killing 68 people. The storm caused an estimated $11 billion in economic losses, with insurance losses expected to hit $650 million, Impact Forecasting said. From there, the cyclone advanced to Nepal, causing avalanches and blizzards that killed 43 people, the report noted.
Japan also faced considerable storm trouble. As Impact Forecasting noted, Super Typhoons Phanfone and Vongfong hit the country twice in a week, causing an estimated $200 million in economic losses (according to early estimates). Phanfone killed at least 11 people plus massive flash flooding and landslides. Vongfong killed six people and caused some structural damage, Impact Forecasting said.
Still, the U.S. hasn’t been immune to bad weather. Severe thunderstorms, large hail, strong winds, isolated tornadoes and torrential rain hit much of the central and southern United States earlier in October, for example, injuring several people and causing $425 million in economic losses and more than $275 million in insured losses. Midmonth, severe thunderstorms struck the same region, leading to thousands of claims and sizable economic losses still being calculated.
Washington and Oregon faced a major storm on Oct. 25, stemming from the remnants of Hurricane Ana, that killed two people, downed trees and power lines, disrupted transport, and caused more than $12 million in economic losses, according to the report.
Impact Forecasting is the catastrophe modeling division of Aon Benfield, the global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor of Aon plc.
Source: Impact Forecasting/Aon Benfield