US Weather Catastrophe Claims 19 Lives so Far

Graphic courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

With 5 weather related catastrophes the industry is dealing with this year already, it was interesting to see that the US has not escaped bad weather.

Extreme flooding in parts of Texas and Oklahoma were triggered by a series of thunderstorm clusters, which produced excessive rainfall over the Memorial Day Weekend. As an aside, it has always interested me how many cats like this occur on a holiday or time of celebration; Mother’s day floods, Cyclone Tracey at Christmas; Boxing Day floods, Australia Day floods etc.

In Houston, Texas, 280 mm (11 inches) of rainfall was unofficially reported between 9:00 pm Central Daylight Time (“CDT”) Monday, through to 3:00 am CDT Tuesday.

Austin, Texas, also experienced 180 mm (7 inches) of rainfall. These are huge falls in anyone’s language.

Reports just in, indicate severe damage as a result of rushing water and inundation, affecting homes, businesses and infrastructure over large areas that include Houston.

At least 19 fatalities have been reported, with a dozen people still unaccounted for.

Response efforts are ongoing with both state and federal support. It will take some time for authorities and the insurance industry to fully assess the scope and severity of impacts of this event.

Naturally everyone’s first thoughts are with the families of those lost and missing, and others directly affected.

It is of course far too early to predict if this event will be large enough to turn around the soft market in the insurance industry.

What it should remind us is that we ought to be discussing flood cover with our clients at renewal, particularly with many of our larger clients in Australia coming up on June 30. If the premiums are going down, perhaps spend some of it on widening the existing cover! If not flood, increasing the current values, or the indemnity period.

I thank Guy Carpenter for their ongoing advices on the Texas event.