Rammasun costliest weather event of 2014

Super Typhoon Rammasun has become the costliest weather event of 2014 after it caused $6.5 billion of losses in Asia.

This is according to Impact Forecasting’s latest report which reviews the natural disaster perils that occurred worldwide during July 2014.

The super typhoon made separate landfalls in the Philippines and China, causing widespread damage and killing at least 206 people and injuring hundreds more. In the Philippines, total economic damages across the agriculture and infrastructure sectors were listed at PHP10.8 billion ($250 million).

In China, the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) said that 272,000 homes had been damaged amid total economic losses listed at CNY38.5 billion ($6.25 billion).

Additional flood and wind damage was reported in Vietnam, leading to total economic losses of VND125 billion ($6.2 million)

Asia was hit with another typhoon, Typhoon Matmo, which made landfalls in Taiwan and China after first passing by the Philippines, resulting in at least 15 fatalities. In Taiwan, economic losses from the typhoon totalled NT$595 million ($20 million), while in China total economic losses were listed at Rmb3.4 billion ($550 million).

Torrential monsoon rains brought significant flooding across southern China throughout July, leaving 102 people dead or missing. The MCA noted that a combined 90,000 homes were damaged by the floods, with total economic losses listed at nearly Rmb11 billion ($1.8 billion).

Europe was also hit with flooding with three fatalities being reported as thunderstorms and flooding rains impacted Bulgaria, Romania, the Netherlands, the UK, Switzerland, Slovakia, and Croatia.

Overall economic losses across the continent were expected to exceed €100 million ($135 million), and preliminary insured losses were listed at nearly €15 million (20 million).

Adam Podlaha, head of Impact Forecasting, said: "Flood is consistently one of the most costly natural perils for insurers, reinsurers and economies worldwide, with three of the past five years experiencing global economic losses from flood that were far higher than the 10-year average of $47 billion.

“Impact Forecasting has built numerous flood models to quantify clients' regional exposures to flood risk, with a particular on central and eastern Europe, the US and more recently Asia. An updated version of our US river flood model, which has been well-received by insurers and reinsurers as well as organisations with US infrastructures, will be released in the third quarter this year. Existing and new users of the model will benefit from being able to track the impact of flood risk on their businesses using the latest data and insights."