PERILS, the independent Zurich-based organisation providing industry-wide catastrophe insurance data, has disclosed its second industry loss estimate for the floods in Central Europe and Italy during the period of 14 to 20 September 2024
Perils revised its estimated insured losses to €2.08 bn, up from the initial estimate of €1.89 bn.
The majority of losses occurred in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Poland, with additional impacts in Italy and Slovakia.
Perils noted that approximately 95% of the losses were concentrated in these five countries, while Hungary and Romania experienced minimal damage.
The mid-September floods were caused by low-pressure system storm Boris (also known as Anett), which brought prolonged and intense rainfall. This resulted in severe flooding across Eastern Austria, the central and eastern Czech Republic, and southwestern Poland.
The Boris system later shifted toward central Italy, continuing to trigger heavy rain and flooding. Perils linked the excessive rainfall to record-high sea surface temperatures in the Mediterranean, which increased atmospheric moisture levels.
The updated loss estimate was generated using Perils’ combined methodologies:
- Perils Core, which scales loss data from affected insurers to a full market level
- Perils Extended, which incorporates data from a wide range of insurance industry sources.
Christoph Oehy, CEO of Perils, highlighted that Europe experienced three significant flood events in 2024: in southern Germany in June, Central Europe in September, and Spain’s Valencia region in October.
Europe has to date experienced three flood events in 2024 which have generated major losses for the insurance industry
Christoph Oehy, chief executive officer, Perils
Combined losses from these events exceeded €7 bn, making 2024 a challenging year for insurers and underscoring their critical role in post-disaster recovery. These losses are second only to the €11 bn in damages from the Bernd floods in July 2021.
From Jan. 1, 2025, Perils will extend its combined methodology to provide catastrophe industry loss estimates globally, excluding the United States. Oehy noted the benefits of this unified approach, noting its reliability for assessing international catastrophe losses.
Oehy continued: “As with our first loss report for the Central Europe Floods, we have combined the PERILS and
CRESTA CLIX methodologies to produce the industry loss number for each of the affected countries. This
methodology will be applied by PERILS to all events from 2025 onwards and today’s estimate helps to
demonstrate the benefits of having a single source for international Cat industry losses.”
