A slow-moving upper-level weather pattern with an embedded frontal system has brought periods of heavy rainfall to areas of eastern Canada to include the Saint Lawrence, Ottawa and Rideau Rivers and surrounding watersheds. The heavy rainfall together with melting snow has caused significant flooding for areas of southern Québec and eastern Ontario to include areas of Montréal and the National Capital Region. Flood control measures in north Montréal were also compromised, causing the flood threat to amplify. At least 4,141 homes have been flooded in Québec. More heavy rainfall is expected over the coming days.

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Guy Carpenter & Company hosted an international forum entitled “Building sustainable flood insurance solutions” in Berlin on May 9-10. The event brought together leading figures from science and academia, non-governmental organizations and the (re)insurance industry to examine the rapidly growing impact of flooding and explore measures to significantly reduce that impact.

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A significant severe thunderstorm outbreak with heavy rainfall has affected areas from the Southern Plains to the Great Lakes and Northeast, with historic flooding in parts of the Central Mississippi Valley. Significant rainfall amounts of over ten inches occurred over saturated soils of the Central Mississippi Valley and surrounding watersheds. The rainfall produced historic flooding on some rivers, and the Mississippi River itself is expected to approach record flood stage at Cape Girardeau over the coming days. Flood impacts have been locally severe and include reports of property damage, numerous road closures, evacuations and water rescues. A levee breach has forced evacuations near Pocahontas, Arkansas.

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Charles Whitmore, Managing Director

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Organizations throughout EMEA have significantly increased the establishment of strategic initiatives to close the protection gap and improve society’s ability to recover from the devastating impact of natural catastrophe losses. Marsh & McLennan Companies’ Risk & Insurance Services Segment, comprised of Guy Carpenter and Marsh, have developed resources and expertise to help clients in this area.

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Charles Whitmore, Managing Director

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On a global basis, approximately 70 (1) percent of the economic loss caused by natural catastrophe events is not covered by insurance. This gap, the cost of uninsured events, frequently falls on governments through disaster relief, welfare payments and infrastructure repair and rebuilding. The ultimate cost of these responses causes a strain on public balance sheets and an increase in public debt, ultimately burdening taxpayers. The protection gap is increasing in emerging economies especially where the amount of natural catastrophe economic loss covered by insurance dropped from 25 percent in 2002 to approximately eight percent in 2014.

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Tim Gardner, President, North America

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With robust portfolio analytics, including advanced actuarial and catastrophic risk modeling, insurers are able to manage portfolio risk with confidence. Notable new portfolio-based models are being used for emerging areas such as casualty catastrophe and cyber risk assessment. Significant advances in sub peril modeling, such as for flood, have also transformed previously non-modeled perils into modeled perils, greatly improving knowledge and underwriting decisions in many regions.

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Tim Gardner, President, North America

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Today’s rapidly changing global environment presents insurers with many challenges and opportunities as capital management and risk transfer techniques evolve at an unprecedented pace. Stakeholders, regulators and ratings agencies are deepening their focus on risk management practices, and revolutionary developments in technology, including the Internet of Things and hyper-connectivity, are driving companies to adapt to the challenges that senior management faces to support risk management decisions material to their business.

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Aidan Pope, Managing Director

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Mexico’s risk management strategy has earned a strong reputation in the international community. The World Bank said it is “at the vanguard of initiatives aimed at the development of an integrated disaster risk management framework, including the effective use of risk financing and insurance mechanisms to manage the fiscal risk derived from disasters,” highlighting it as an example for other governments to follow (1).

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Aidan Pope, Managing Director

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The Mexican federal government’s risk management strategy exemplifies a modern, resilient disaster preparedness plan, including pre- and post-event approaches and public-private partnerships. Following the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, the Mexican National Civil Protection System (SINAPROC) was created, establishing a multi-level system to integrate stakeholders from the three levels of government, the private and social sectors, academia and scientific organizations. Its purpose was to provide an institutional framework for the improved coordination of emergency response. Its capacities in the areas of risk assessment, early warning, preparedness and disaster risk financing were developed. As SINAPROC evolved, it added risk reduction practices to shift from a reactive to a preventative, holistic and integrated risk management plan.

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Aidan Pope, Managing Director

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Many recent catastrophe events in the Latin America/Caribbean region provide examples of the protection gap: Only 5 percent of the USD 8 billion economic loss from Haiti’s 2010 earthquake was insured; and the insured portion of the USD 2 to 3 billion economic loss caused by the April 2016 earthquake in Manta, Ecuador, is expected to reach no more than 15 percent. The 2016 earthquake has deeply impacted the local economy and government finances as unemployment increased by approximately 50 percent and the government was compelled to increase sales taxes by two percent to fund national reparation and recovery costs. In general, emerging markets face a much larger protection gap than developed economies:

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