Insured losses for Turkey-Syria quakes could top $5B: CoreLogic
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CoreLogic Inc. on Wednesday said industry insurable losses in Turkey could exceed $4 billion for powerful earthquakes that struck near the Turkey-Syria border beginning late on Feb. 5 and continued through the morning of Feb. 6 and another $1 billion for a second quake two weeks later.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred in southern Turkey near the northern border of Syria on Feb. 6 at 4:17 a.m. local time. A magnitude 6.7 aftershock followed 11 minutes later, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Just two weeks after this sequence of powerful earthquakes struck near the Turkey and Syria border, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit areas west of Aleppo, Syria.
CoreLogic estimates insurable losses in Turkey could reach $1 billion for the more recent quake, with material damage in the areas nearest to the epicenter, but losses will be less than the magnitude 7.8 and magnitude 7.5 earthquakes that caused widespread devastation in southern Turkey and northern Syria on Feb. 5 and Feb. 6, CoreLogic said.
The insurable loss estimate includes damages to buildings and contents for residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural structures in Turkey. It excludes any loss from damage to infrastructure such as road and rail networks; water and electric power systems; oil and gas pipelines.
Additional living expenses, business interruption and contingent business interruption are also excluded. Demand surge is not included.
Insurable losses in the affected area have been difficult to determine due to uneven insurance penetration rates.
