RMS estimates insured losses of €3-5 billion from Windstorm Kyrill

Risk Management Solutions (RMS), has released an initial estimate of €3-5 billion for insured losses from Windstorm Kyrill, which produced a wide swath of damaging winds across Europe on January 18, 2007. Windstorm Kyrill was the most damaging storm to affect Europe for several years, causing widespread, consistent damage across the UK, through Belgium and the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Kyrill developed in the mid-Atlantic on Wednesday, January 17, and swept across the UK while deepening off the coast of Northern Ireland early on Thursday morning. After losing strength while passing over the UK, Kyrill re-intensified over Denmark, with severe consequences for Germany and countries further east.

Windstorm Kyrill caused damage over a broader area and was more intense than Windstorm Jeannette in 2002, which was the last storm to affect these countries and caused a total insurance bill of over €1 billion. In the UK, Kyrill was the most damaging storm since Windstorm Daria in January 1990, but was much less intense. RMS estimates that a repeat of Daria in the UK today would cause approximately €6 billion in insured losses.

“While the windspeeds caused by Windstorm Kyrill can not be ranked alongside the major 1999 Windstorms, Lothar, Anatol and Martin, and the losses are low compared to what would be caused today by a storm such as Daria, Kyrill by nature of its size is a reminder of the loss potential from storms that can impact multiple countries across Europe,” said Dr. Barbara Page, lead model manager for European windstorm modeling. “Kyrill subjected the European building stock to widespread damaging winds, but not of the intensity experienced during the 1999 storms.”

The breakdown of losses shows that most of the damage was caused in the UK and Germany. Significant power outages affecting hundreds of thousands of people also contributed to losses. In addition, transport was severely disrupted with the high winds and power outages halting many rail networks and hampering flying conditions. RMS is collecting damage observations and will be working extensively with European insurers to build on its historically thorough research into the performance of the European building stock.

RMS generated the estimate of losses by re-constructing the footprint of Windstorm Kyrill using observation data from the dense network of stations maintained by individual country meteorological agencies, and modeling property-related losses within the updated RMS® Europe Windstorm Model released in spring 2006. The update focused on all components of modeling, including embedding the latest numerical methodologies into modeling windstorms, together with a detailed understanding of regional variations in European building stock.

•Date: 24th January 2007 • Region: UK/W.Europe •Type: Article •Topic: DR general
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