July U.K. floods to be as costly as June: RMS

LONDON— Risk Management Solutions Inc. said that the current U.K. floods will be at least as costly to insurers as the floods in late June and said they could result in heavier losses.

The Newark, Calif.-based risk modeling firm said that the floods that hit parts of northern England in late June cost more than £750 million ($1.54 billion) in insured losses.

The firm said that while fewer properties have been affected in the latest floods, a combination of factors such as higher claims and proportion of damage which is insured, together with business interruption caused by loss of power and running water could take the total insured loss of late June and July to over £2 billion ($4.1 billion).

RMS said in a statement that the floods will pose the biggest test to the private flood insurance market since the 1960s and may lead to serious reconsideration of the availability of flood insurance.

"The catastrophe risk models that have been developed for the insurance industry to assess flood risk today should now be employed to help reduce the impacts of floods in a climate change future" said Robert Muir-Wood, chief research officer at RMS in the statement.