tornadoes

Over the last wake an outbreak of severe convective storms in the United States that also included the deadly tornado event that devastated the towns of Rolling Fork and Silver City in Mississippi are together anticipated to drive hundreds of millions of dollars worth of insurance market losses, according to Aon.

As participants in the insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) industry grapple to understand the extent of their possible exposure to the severe convective storms and tornadoes of recent days, AM Best has warned that loss events like this will drive a re-examination of aggregate reinsurance pricing and supply.

Our sister publication Reinsurance News surveyed a segment of its industry readership as to how high they anticipate the insurance and reinsurance market loss from the recent severe storm and tornado outbreak will rise, with the largest percentage opting for between $2.5 billion and $5 billion.

Preliminary data from CoreLogic shows that properties with a reconstruction value of almost $3.7 billion were exposed to the tornado outbreak at the weekend, with $2.9 billion in Kentucky alone.

The recent outbreak of deadly tornadoes and damaging severe convective storms in the United States has been estimated as a roughly $3 billion insurance industry loss, by risk modeller Karen Clark & Company.

Broking powerhouse Aon has warned that the industry faces a multi-billion loss from the US tornadoes that struck at the weekend, but notes that at this stage it only anticipates a “limited portion” of the losses being ceded to reinsurance.

Lloyd’s of London syndicate manager and private capital specialist Argenta Group suggests that the weekend tornado damage in the southeastern United States could result in an industry loss that it likens to the 2020 Derecho event, that resulted in an estimated $7 billion of costs for insurance and reinsurance markets.

At this still early stage following the tornadoes and severe storms that struck the United States this weekend, it’s not yet possible to rule out any loss impacts to ILS investors, according to Twelve Capital.

The weekend’s significant tornado activity in the United States could affect some aggregate catastrophe bonds, according to insurance-linked securities (ILS) asset manager Plenum Investments.

This weekend’s tragic tornado impacts across southeastern US states is expected to drive an insurance and reinsurance market loss into the billions of dollars, with sources stating it could be the largest tornado-driven industry loss in a decade, perhaps more.