Typhoon Hagibis insured losses could reach $16 billion: AIR
Posted On: Oct. 22, 2019 1:41 PM CST
Japan’s Typhoon Hagibis will generate between $8 billion and $16 billion in insured losses, with more with than half of the losses due to inland flooding, catastrophe modeler AIR Worldwide said Tuesday.
The typhoon made landfall Oct. 12 on the main Japanese island of Honshu with sustained wind speeds of about 90 mph, which is the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane, Boston-based AIR said in a statement.
The storm delivered high winds and record-breaking precipitation to a large portion of Honshu, said the statement, with a storm surge raising sea levels more than 1 meter above mean sea level along parts of the coast.
The town of Hakone, where 37 inches of precipitation was recorded, broke the calendar-day rainfall record for all of Japan, AIR said in the statement.
The statement said that shortly before the typhoon made landfall, a magnitude-5.7 earthquake struck the region, parts of which were in the early stages of recovery from Typhoon Faxai, which struck one month earlier.
Because of the intense rainfall within a short period of time, much of the floodwater had a high mud content and included a large amount of debris, which could potentially increase the costs of repair and cleanup and drive up business interruptions losses, especially for commercial and industrial properties, AIR said in its statement.
Additional damage caused by Hagibis to properties that had been damaged by Faxai but were not repaired would further complicate claims settlements, it said.