Insurers face up to 7-billion-euro bill from winter storm
Pastor Dale Morgan
Insurers face up to 7-billion-euro bill from winter storm: Munich Re*
FRANKFURT, Jan 26 (AFP) Jan 26, 2007
The deadly winter storm that lashed much of northern Europe last week
will cost the insurance industry between five and seven billion euros,
Germany's Munich Re said Friday.
The company, the world's second-largest reinsurer, said in a statement
that it alone would face a pre-tax burden of up to 600 million euros
(775 million dollars).
It said Germany faced the biggest damage claims but that European
neighbors had also been hit hard.
Swiss Re estimated earlier Friday that the storm, known in some
countries as Kyrill, would cost the insurance industry up to 3.5 billion
euros.
Storm-related accidents caused the deaths of at least 47 people across
Europe since last week, including 13 people in Britain, which suffered
its worst storm in 17 years, with winds reaching 160 kilometers (100
miles) per hour.
Eleven people were killed in Germany, seven in the Netherlands, six in
Poland, four in the Czech Republic, three in France, two in Belgium and
one in Ukraine.
The storm caused several hundreds of millions of euros of damage and
left more than two million homes without electricity.