Travelers estimates over $1 billion in losses from recent U.S. severe weather

U.S. property and casualty insurer The Travelers Companies has announced that it expects to face insured losses of over $1 billion for the severe weather experienced in the U.S. during April and May. The estimate reflects losses from the severe thunderstorms across the Midwest and Southeast U.S. which spawned many tornadoes and severe hail storms.

Travelers are the second U.S. insurer to announce billion dollar losses from recent events. At the end of May State Farm announced that they expected their claims paid for events in April and May to hit $1 billion.

These losses will be passed on to reinsurers through the primary insurers reinsurance programmes. Neither of these insurers included estimates for insured losses caused by the flooding which has devastated areas of the U.S. Aon Benfield’s latest monthly catastrophe update report put an estimate of $5 billion on losses from flooding in the Mississippi Valley alone, so U.S. primary insurers are likely to face further significant losses from the April-May period.