2008 is second-costliest year for global catastrophes

Global catastrophes in 2008 cost insurers US$50 billion, making it the second-costliest year ever in terms of insured losses, according to a forthcoming Swiss Re sigma study.
More than 238,000 people lost their lives to natural catastrophes and man-made disasters this year, including the death of 138,400 people in Myanmar during a tropical cyclone and 87,400 people in China during an earthquake.
The cyclone in Myanmar set off one of the largest humanitarian crises in recent memory, while the earthquake in China left more than 10 million homeless.
Most of the losses from these two events were not insurered.
Of the US$50 billion in insured losses, natural catastrophes accounted for US$43 billion, with storms costing insurers US$39 billion, according to Swiss Re.
Hurricanes in the U.S. and the Caribbean triggered record losses, the sigma study noted. Hurricane Ike resulted in claims of US$20 billion and Hurricane Gustav resulted in claims of US$4 billion.
In Europe, weather storm Emma caused damages of US$1.4 billion, which was significantly less than the damages caused by last year’s winter storm Kyrill (at US$6 billion).
“Man-made disasters continued to be costly for the insurance industry in 2008,” Swiss Re notes in a release. “Explosions and major fires resulted in losses of [US$]4.8 billion. Damages to industry and industrial warehouses accounted for approximately [US$]2.1 billion of this amount, while oil and gas-related incidents — excluding offshore damage from hurricanes — cost insurers another [US$]1.5 billion.”