An unidentified woman walks in front of her flooded home on June 23, 2018 in Alleppey, Kerala, India. Kerala experienced the worst flooding of any state in southern India during the August monsoon. (Photo: Shutterstock)
August's monsoonal rains triggered the worst flood event in India since 1924. The extreme weather event left more than 500 people dead or missing. Government officials listed more than 23,000 homes damaged or destroyed, with even greater impacts to the commercial sector, agriculture and infrastructure.
The total economic losses (in U.S. dollars) are estimated to reach upward of $4.25 billion, according to Aon's August Global Catastrophe Recap report, a monthly release that evaluates the impact of natural disaster events that occurred worldwide.
Related: Flooding has left 186 dead and thousands homeless in India
|Assessing the damage
Government reports listed 2.24 million acres of cropland were flooded, and nearly 4,000 miles of roadway segments and 134 bridges were damaged or destroyed.
The General Insurance Companies of India said that more than 13,000 insurance claims had already been filed with a payout of $175 million, a number that is expected to rise, exceeding $635 million.
India's Karnataka state was also affected by the monsoon, experiencing more than a dozen casualties and an estimated $300 million in economic losses.
Related: Putting climate change into numbers: Why 300,000 homes are at risk
|Around the world
August was a tough month for Asia.
A series of powerful earthquakes rocked Indonesia's Lombok Island, with at least four significant tremors occurring since the end of July. The country's National Disaster Management Agency indicated that at least 560 people had been killed in Lombok since the tremors began, the majority of whom were killed due to the strongest tremor on Aug. 5.
These two major events — the historic floods in India's state of Kerala, and a sequence of four powerful earthquakes in Indonesia's Lombok region — created a combined $5 billion in economic damage.
Steve Bowen, Impact Forecasting Director and Meteorologist for Aon, said in a statement that despite the high economic toll, only a small fraction of those losses will be covered by insurance due to low take-up.
“This once again highlights an opportunity for government entities and the private insurance market to work together to lower the protection gap that exists in many emerging and developed markets,” Bowen added.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Danielle Ling
Danielle Ling is an experienced video journalist and business reporter. As associate editor, Danielle manages all multimedia and reports on industry news and risk-related coverage, managing all weather-related content. A University of Maryland and Philip Merrill College of Journalism alum, Danielle previously served as a video journalist for Verizon FiOS 1 News NJ, Push Pause. Connect with Danielle on LinkedIn or email her at [email protected].
