Posted on The New York times | By Hiroko Tabuchi
Overall losses, including uninsured damage, came to $330 billion, according to the reinsurer, Munich Re of Germany. That tally was second only to 2011, when an earthquake and tsunami in Japan contributed to losses of $354 billion at today’s dollars.
Insured losses from weather-related disasters were at a high, making up most of the $135 billion. Munich Re executives warned that losses would continue to escalate.
“Some of the catastrophic events, such as the series of three extremely damaging hurricanes, or the very severe flooding in South Asia after extraordinarily heavy monsoon rains, are giving us a foretaste of what is to come,” Torsten Jeworrek, a Munich Re board member, said in a statement.
In Europe, unusually low temperatures in April caused billions of dollars in damage to farmers, shrinking some harvests by 50%.
Read entire article 2017 Set a Record for Losses From Natural Disasters. It Could Get Worse. | Hiroko Tabuchi | The New York Times