Final PERILS AG loss estimate for windstorm Dirk at 420 million euros

PERILS AG has released a final property market loss estimate of 420 million euros for damage wreaked by windstorm Dirk about a week before the close of 2013.

The storm affected the United Kingdom and France when the storm hit Dec. 23 to 25 last year, notes a statement Tuesday from PERILS, an insurance industry initiative that seeks to improve the availability of catastrophe insurance market data based on information exclusively received from insurance companies writing business in territories covered by PERILS.

The 420 million euros estimate is the final of PERILS AG’s four estimates on the Cat event. The third estimate for windstorm Dirk, released June 23, was 370 million euros; the second, released Mar. 23, was 352 million euros; and the first, released Feb. 3, was 275 million euros.

PERILS previously noted that loss estimates exclude losses indemnified by government schemes such as CatNat in France. Additionally, it reported previously that in combination with gust speed data and PERILS market sums insured, the Dirk loss footprint can be used to validate European wind risk models with actual data.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) noted this past February that insured losses from damage caused by the storms and flooding over the Christmas 2013 and New Year period were estimated at £426 million. ABI reported at the time that from Dec. 23, 2013 to Jan. 8, 2014, insurers dealt with 174,000 claims for damage to homes, businesses and cars.

The majority of the losses from the storm occurred in Southern England in the U.K. and in Brittany and Normandy in France. “The highest wind speeds occurred in the U.K. and in France where storm surge and heavy precipitation accompanying the storm led to localized flooding,” PERILS previously noted.