The current activity of the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island has not had a major impact on insurers and reinsurers, experts say, but it does underscore the serious threat that volcanoes present.

Nearly 2,000 people have been evacuated from the southeast corner of the island since the volcano erupted on May 4, according to news accounts. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on the rim of the Kilauea caldera reported on Sunday that an 18th fissure had opened with lava spatters and active fumes. The observatory said that continued earthquake activity and additional outbreaks in the area are likely.

The observatory also warned about a possible explosive eruption at Halema’uma’u Crater that could generate dangerous debris near the crater and ashfalls up to tens of miles downwind.

Balz Grollimund, Swiss Re Ltd.’s Toronto-based senior vice president for North America, said while the eruptions are serious for the local communities, “to insurers and reinsurers this is not a really big problem.”

“Hawaii, and especially the Big Island, is no stranger to volcanic eruptions,” Mr. Grollimund said. “The type of eruption you’re seeing at the moment is not out of the ordinary. Every once in a while, they happen a bit closer to some farms, some population. Of course, there’s an impact to those communities, but if we think about the insurance industry and certainly when it comes to the point of reinsurance, these are not exposures to be worried about.”

“Clearly, it has affected a couple dozen homeowners, but thus far from a commercial point of view, it hasn’t hit the radar yet,” said Gary Marchitello, head of property broking for Willis Towers Watson P.L.C., in New York. “In the relative scheme of things, certainly over last 40 to 50 years, volcanoes have not been a big contributor to insured losses.”

Alexander Allmann, Munich-based head of section, property for Munich Reinsurance Co., had a similar opinion, saying in an email that “the region affected is well known to be at high risk.”

“The interruption is not a surprise as Kilauea is constantly active and the generation of cracks is not uncommon,” Mr. Allmann, a geophysicist and earthquake expert, wrote. “Currently the business interruption potential in Hawaii is rather limited. As the affected region is rather limited and no big surprises are expected we don’t expect any significant negative impacts to companies on the island. The power supply and transportation have not been affected. While there can always be damage to companies that have properties in the affected region, in this situation the region is sparsely populated.”

While the Kilauea eruption does not currently pose a threat, Mr. Grollimund said “it really brought us back to the question what other volcanoes we would be concerned about.”

He noted that the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland had a serious impact on North Atlantic airline traffic, while the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington was much larger than the Icelandic eruption.

“Geologists are very worried about Mount Rainier,” Mr. Grollimund said, which last erupted in 1894. “It was quite a while ago, but when you think about natural disasters, it’s not that long ago. And it’s quite conceivable that it can happen again. The thing about volcanoes is that a lot of them are close to big cities, such as Mexico City and Tokyo.”

The impact of volcanic ash on electronics and utilities has not really been seen yet, Mr. Grollimund said.

“The society is dependent upon communication, on high tech,” he said. “There’s some potential we could see some issues from heavy ash fall on that front. We don’t know how cellphone networks respond or how resistant cellphone towers are to ash fall.”