Monsoonal rains devastate Southern India, triggering $4B in losses
Kerala experienced the worst flooding since 1924, leaving over 500 people dead or missing.
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.
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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.
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