(Reuters) — German insurers are on the hook for about €650 million ($887.2 million) in damage claims from storm "Ela" in early June, which hit northwestern Germany especially hard, an industry body said on Wednesday.
Property insurers face around 350,000 claims from homes and businesses totaling €400 million ($546 million), while car insurers have received 100,000 claims worth around €250 million ($341.2 million), insurance association GDV said.
"Ela is the second-most expensive storm to hit property insurers in the last 15 years," GDV said, adding that Ela had been topped by storm "Andreas," which caused €1.9 billion ($2.59 billion) in property claims in July last year.
The GDV does not give a breakdown of losses by insurer.
Germany's biggest insurer, Allianz S.E., and reinsurers Munich Reinsurance Co. and Hannover Re S.E. have yet to publish their loss estimates for the storm.
German railway Deutsche Bahn alone faces a €60 million ($81.9 million) hit to its earnings from the storm, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Wednesday, citing a company internal document.
A joint study by the GDV and climate research institutes showed that storm damage could rise by more than 50% by 2100 as intense storms are expected to become more frequent.