Topics geo natural catastrophes 2013: analyses, assessments, positions

This 2014 issue asserts that 2013 was a below-average year in terms of natural hazard losses for the insurance industry. It features typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, which caused the year’s biggest catastrophe, with a storm surge that claimed thousands of lives and devastated vast areas. It also focuses on water-related events, which dominated 2013 with extensive flooding on nearly all continents, and especially in Europe and Germany. It includes a chapter on tornadoes and hurricanes in the USA, as well as some facts, figures and background information on climate change.

Also in focus is the relationship between catastrophes and the poor with a chapter on the responsibility of industrial nations to help poorer countries develop their insurance sector. It considers the meteorite impact in Chelyabinsk, Siberia, as an unusual event which showed that the insurance industry needs to consider even the “most exotic” of hazards. Finally, the NatCatSERVICE and Geo Risks insights part proposes a review of the severe thunderstorms in the USA, some lessons learnt from past earthquakes, the new Global Earthquake Model and the disaggregation of liability data.