Category:

Disaster & Management

Weather disasters becoming more frequent and costly, UN agency says

“Thanks to our early warning service improvement we have been able to have a decrease of the casualties at these kind of events, but the bad news is that the economic losses have been growing very rapidly and this growth is supposed to continue,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas told a press conference.

“We are going to see more climatic extreme because of climate change and this negative trend in climate will continue for the coming decades,” he said.

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Hurricane Ida lashes Louisiana, knocking out power in New Orleans

U.S. President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in Louisiana, ordering federal assistance to bolster recovery efforts in more than two-dozen storm-stricken parishes. Ida slammed ashore around noon near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, a hub of the Gulf’s offshore energy industry, blasting the coast with hurricane-force winds extending 50 miles (80 km) out from the eye of the storm. Landfall came 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina, one of the most catastrophic on record, struck the Gulf Coast.

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Lloyd’s forms partnership to deliver faster claims service through geospatial technology

The GEO platform will provide the Lloyd’s market with real-time analysis of global perils including storms, wildfires and flooding. The data, which includes innovative resolution drone imagery, allows Lloyd’s market insurers to instantly assess damages at a time when physical access to the risk location may be limited following a natural catastrophe. 

Satellite imaging combined with other intelligence data sources is an innovative way of assessing damage to insured infrastructure and businesses. The technology will help insurers support customers around the world during periods of crisis, whilst reducing operational costs and the carbon footprint of insurers.

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Shell will pay $111 million to end Nigerian oil-spill case

The Anglo-Dutch energy giant will pay the Ejama-Ebubu people 45.7 billion naira ($111 million) in compensation to end a legal case that began in 1991, the community’s lawyer, Lucius Nwosu, said by phone.
The origin of the Ejama-Ebubu community’s grievance against Shell dates back to a rupture in one of the company’s oil pipelines in 1970. Shell said it maintains that the environmental damage was caused by “third parties” during a civil war that was raging at the time.

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Why snow, hail and wildfire are expensive for insurance industry

Martin Bertogg, head of catastrophic perils at Swiss Re, said that the industry had been challenged by what is known as “secondary perils.” That is, while the insurance industry has historically done a good job of modeling relatively rare but potentially devastating events such as earthquakes and hurricanes, it’s battling to keep up with risks posed by snow storms, hail, tornadoes and wildfires. Those used to cause relatively minor damage but are increasingly morphing into something more costly. And that is a problem for companies, since many Americans have coverage for such events.

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Haiti: flash floods and mudslides latest threats in earthquake-hit country

The natural disaster is likely to cost insurers around $250 million, according to catastrophe modeling firm Karen Clark & Co. (KCC).

While the insured losses from this event are estimated at $250 million, the KCC Caribbean Earthquake Reference Model shows that insurable losses are around $1.7 billion (which indicates an insurance protection gap of approximately $1.45 billion), said the firm

In addition to the dead and wounded, initial reports indicate more than 700 collapsed buildings, including hospitals and schools, more than 13,000 homes destroyed, and significant damage to roads.

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Extreme weather makes everything harder, except climate-risk analysis

The findings were hardly surprising to those who follow climate science closely, but the gravitas of the report, which summarizes work by thousands of academics, will shift the broader conversation on global warming for years to come.That we now acknowledge, without doubt, that rising global temperatures are causing more extreme weather underlines the importance of all the work being done to assess the financial costs of climate change. It is also a reminder that financial analysts, policymakers and economists can’t begin to capture the full scale and effect of a warming planet.

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7.2 magnitude earthquake hits Haiti; at least 304 killed

The epicenter of the quake was about 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of the capital of Port-au-Prince, the US Geological Survey said, and widespread damage was reported in the hemisphere’s poorest nations as a tropical storm also bore down.

Haiti’s civil protection agency said on Twitter that the death toll stood at 304, most in the country’s south. Rescue workers and bystanders were able to pull many people to safety from the rubble. The agency said injured people were still being delivered to hospitals

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