PERILS ups storm Boris European flood industry loss estimate 5% to €2.19bn

Catastrophe data aggregator PERILS has now raised its insurance industry loss estimate for the severe flooding experienced across parts of Central Europe and Italy in September 2024 due to storm Boris, increasing the total by 5% to €2.19 billion.

For those in need of a reminder, in mid-September 2024, the low-pressure system Boris (also known as Anett) brought prolonged heavy rain across Central Europe, causing floods in Eastern Austria, the central and eastern Czech Republic, and southwestern Poland.

The system then moved back towards central Italy continuing to generate heavy downpours that resulted in severe flooding across the regions of Emilia-Romagna and Marche.

PERILS initial estimate for the event was €1.886 billion, reported in early November.

Then, in December, PERILS raised its industry loss estimate by just over 10% to €2.08 billion.

Now, the industry loss estimate has risen by 5% to €2.19 billion, PERILS reported today

It’s important to note, that this new industry loss estimate is based on a combination of the standard PERILS methodology (now PERILS CORE), which involves grossing up loss data provided by affected insurers to 100% market level, and the former CRESTA CLIX methodology (now PERILS EXTENDED), which is based on expert evaluation of a broad range of insurance industry sources.

“This combined approach enables PERILS to act as a single source of data for international (i.e. excluding US) natural catastrophe industry losses,” PERILS explained.

Christoph Oehy, CEO of PERILS, commented: “The event marks the biggest flood loss in Europe since the dramatic ’Bernd Floods‘ in mid-July 2021, and contributed to the heavy international flood loss toll experienced in 2024, which included the Dubai Floods in April, the Rio Grande do Sul Floods in Brazil in April and May, the Southern Germany Floods in June, the floods caused by Ex-Hurricane Debby in Canada in August, and the Valencia Floods in Spain in October.”

He continued: “By integrating CRESTA CLIX into PERILS we are able to provide a more comprehensive event loss view of the Central Europe Floods. The combination of PERILS CORE and PERILS EXTENDED represents a big step forward for the industry-loss-based risk transfer market, and we look forward to working with the industry to explore the range of possibilities this creates and to help drive further innovation in the sector.”