Several earthquakes, the heatwave in Russia and the floods in Pakistan were the deadliest natural disasters last year. Altogether, a total of 950 natural disasters were recorded by the firm in 2010, nine-tenths of which were weather-related events such as storms and floods. This total makes 2010 the year with the second-highest number of natural disasters since 1980.Munich Re estimated that the overall losses from the nearly 1,000 natural disasters amounted to around $130 billion, of which approximately $37 billion was insured. This makes 2010 among the six most loss-intensive years for the insurance industry since 1980.
"2010 showed the major risks we have to cope with. There were a number of severe earthquakes. The hurricane season was also eventful - it was just fortunate that the tracks of most of the storms remained over the open sea. But things could have turned out very differently," said Torsten Jeworrek, Munich Re's Reinsurance CEO. "The severe earthquakes and the hurricane season with so many storms demonstrate once again that there must be no slackening of our efforts to analyse these risks in detail and provide the necessary insurance covers at adequate prices."
Munich Re said the top natural disasters of 2010, based on definition criteria of the United Nations, were the earthquakes in Haiti on January 12, in Chile on February 27 and in central China on April 13. Other top disasters include the heatwave in Russia from July to September and the floods in Pakistan in the same period.
These five disasters accounted for the major share of fatalities in 2010, around 295,000, and just under half the overall losses caused by natural catastrophes.
