Storm Ciarán to drive “notable” economic and insured loss: Aon

According to insurance and reinsurance broker Aon’s Impact Forecasting division, the economic and insured losses from storm Ciarán are expected to be “notable” with hundreds of millions of Euros anticipated for each.

The largest concentration of insured losses from storm Ciarán are expected to be in northern France where its windspeeds were the most ferocious.

Wind gusts as high as 125 mph were recorded from windstorm Ciarán, while the storms minimum central pressure deepened to be recorded as low as 953 mb.

European windstorm Ciarán formed after a low pressure system was accelerated across the Atlantic on a fast jet stream resulting in rapid cyclogenesis and a significant deepening of the low.

Hurricane force wind gusts and higher were experienced widely, with the north west of France, the Channel Islands, southwest and southern UK all particularly affected.

Material damage has been experienced in some areas, along with flooding and coastal impacts from very large waves and high seas.

Fatalities were also reported, from France (2), Belgium (2), Netherlands (1), Germany (1), and Spain (1).

In addition, flooding in northern Italy has also been attributed to the tail of the same low pressure system, which has been particularly severe in Tuscany.

Aon’s Impact Forecasting commented, “Ciarán will likely result in a notable economic and insured loss, particularly in France.

“Initial expectations of loss from the event from a financial perspective was in the hundreds of millions EUR, with the highest impact in the worst affected departments in northwestern France.

“Impact in the United Kingdom was eventually lower than initially feared from some modelled views. Additional, notable number of insurance claims was also expected to be filed in Belgium and the Netherlands.”

The broking group said that “notable” economic and insured losses are initially expected to reach into the hundreds of millions of Euros after storm Ciarán.

For the United Kingdom, Ciarán came on the heels of storm Babet, which PwC UK had estimated would cause an insurance market loss of between £450 million and £650 million.