U.S. storms generate up to $7B in insurance losses in May

0 views
Skip to first unread message

Pastor Dale Morgan

unread,
Jun 7, 2011, 2:35:29 AM6/7/11
to Bible-Pro...@googlegroups.com
Perilous Times and Climate Change

U.S. storms generate up to $7B in insurance losses in May

Reuters

2:23 PM CDT, June 6, 2011


A week of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes across the United States in late May generated $4 billion to $7 billion in insured losses, catastrophe modeling company AIR Worldwide said Monday.

It is the latest blow to an insurance industry that has suffered unprecedented losses this year from disaster after disaster -- floods and cyclones in Australia, earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan, unrest in the Middle East and record-breaking tornado activity in the United States.

Insurance brokerage Guy Carpenter said last week that 2011 losses for reinsurers, as a group, were already more than double their full-year forecast.

AIR Worldwide said the two major U.S. tornado outbreaks this year -- the late May events and a series in late April -- were the costliest in history.

Taken together, the disasters this year are forcing higher prices in the insurance industry after years of sharp declines.

All eyes in the industry are now on the Atlantic Ocean after the start of hurricane season last week. Many in the industry believe a major hurricane, which the United States avoided the last two years, would dramatically accelerate the return of pricing power for insurers.

The S&P insurance index was down 1 percent in afternoon trading, with nearly all the index components lower. The index is off 2.8 percent this year, compared with a gain of 2.7 percent for the S&P 500 index.

Copyright © 2011, Chicago Breaking Business
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages