The 7.9-magnitude earthquake that recently struck China has claimed an estimated 15,000 lives to date and has dramatically disrupted the lives of many more. Although the full extent of the damage inflicted by the quake, which made its formidable presence on May 12, is not yet clear, Risk Management Solutions (RMS) has assigned a preliminary price tag to the resultant property losses: between $10 billion and $15 billion.
The catastrophe expert and the Institute of Engineering Mechanics (IEM) have been working in tandem to assess the damage since the event occurred. Their figure takes into account damage to residential, commercial, and industrial properties. It does not, however, reflect losses related to infrastructure and interrupted economic activity, which carry significantly larger financial implications.
Though concentrated in a somewhat sparsely populated area, the seismic event affected Chengdu, which is situated 90 kilometers from the epicenter. As China's tenth largest city by gross domestic product (GDP), Chengdu is home to more than 30 Fortune 500 companies and 12,000 domestic organizations.
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