Second highest catastrophe insurance losses (11/1/01)

Catastrophes continued to wreak misery and material havoc in 2000 claiming 17,000 lives and directly caused losses of about $38bn, according to Swiss Re.

The loss to the insurance industry is estimated at $11bn, with $7.6bn resulting from natural catastrophes.

Floods alone accounted for $6 bn. About 9,000 of the death toll were in man-made catastrophes, and two thirds of these were transport related whether land, air or sea.

As only the Tokai floods in Japan reached the billion-dollar threshold, the claims burden from natural catastrophes was relatively low.

This is in stark contrast to the preceding year in which seven $1bn storm and earthquake events brought the second highest losses in insurance history.

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