Insurance Center

1. On September 13th of 2008, following having caused extensive damages throughout the Caribbean during the prior week, Hurricane Ike made its U.S. landfall at Galveston, Texas. When the U.S. insured estimated damages were included with the onshore and offshore property damages, they came to as high as $21 billion. This made Hurricane Ike, the third-costliest hurricane in U.S. history.

2. On September 1st of 2008, after ravaging a good portion of the Caribbean, Hurricane Gustav made landfall along the Louisiana coast. This time the storm spared New Orleans, but even so, including onshore and offshore property, insured U.S. damage estimates were as high as $10 billion. At the same time the estimate for non-U.S. insured losses was less than $100 million.

3. Between May 2nd and May 11th of the year 2008, storms that pounded parts of the Midwest and South created as much as $2.2 billion in insured property damages.

4. On March 1st of last year, in Germany and much of Western Europe, Windstorm Emma cut through Germany, as well as Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Excluding the Czech Republic and the Baltic States, the estimated insured damage reached as high as e1.3 billion (or $1.66 billion).

5. The estimated cost of insured property damages from severe storms that pounded parts of the Midwest from May 22nd through May 26th was set at $1.3 billion. The storms, including several tornadoes, affected Minnesota, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Wyoming.

6. In eastern Honshu in Japan on June 14th, an earthquake struck. From this storm alone, insured damages were estimated to be as high as 100 billion yen ($1.08 billion).

7. In Southern California, wildfires in November caused an estimated $600 million to $800 million in insured property damage.

8. In the eastern Sichuan Province of China, on May 12th, an earthquake caused as much as $500 million in insured damage.

9. On July 21st on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Hurricane Dolly made landfall. It then moved on into the Gulf of Mexico where it made a second
landfall at South Padre Island Texas, on July 23rd. Combining insured damages for both countries the estimate fell at between $300 to $800 million.

10. On Sept. 24th, Typhoon Hagupit struck southern Guangdong Province in China along with the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The range of estimates in insured property damages reached as high as $250 million.

11. On May 2nd of 2008, Cyclone Nargis made landfall in Myanmar. Although the insured property damaged caused by the storm was insignificant, it is said to have been blamed for at least 76,000 deaths.