Middle East flooding bears 3-digit million cost, mild insurance bill
Torrential rain and flooding in Dubai and throughout southwest Asia will ring up hundreds of millions of dollars in economic damage, but put a much smaller bill to insurers given relatively low insurance penetration, analysts at global insurance brokerage Aon have said.
Dubai hit the spotlight during the region’s storms, bearing as much rainfall in two days that it usually records in 18 months, with a complete flooding of Dubai International Airport, cancellation of 1200 flights and submergence of dozens of aircraft, Aon said in its event summary. Power outages and water supply interruptions were recorded.
“Given the ongoing damage assessment and the notable damage caused over a large area, it is still too early to determine the estimated economic impact across the affected region,” Aon analysts wrote.
“However, initial assessments from the area suggest a significant impact on property, infrastructure, and agriculture, that will likely run to at least hundreds of millions of US dollars. “Insured losses will be notably lower due to relatively low insurance penetration.”
Moody’s RMS concurred, saying the Gulf region is “an area that is typically underserved with solutions for managing flood risk.”
Elsewhere in southwest Asia, at least 20 fatalities were reported in Oman along with severe weather-related losses and major disruptions. An additional 71 people were killed in Pakistan where a state of emergency was declared. At least 70 people were also killed in Afghanistan where more than 2,600 houses were destroyed or suffered damage.
Separately, economic damage from a week of severe weather and heavy rainfall in the north-central and northeast US is also expected to have caused hundreds of millions of dollars of economic and insured damage.
“Persistent severe weather and heavy rainfall from three weather systems brought impacts primarily to the north-central and northeast United States on April 11-18,” Aon said.
“Continuous severe storms caused widespread property damage and power outages over an area stretching from Nebraska to Pennsylvania. Total economic and insured losses could reach into the hundreds of millions of US dollars.”
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