China’s worst seasonal flooding for a decade has left more than 2,100 people dead or missing country-wide and has necessitated the evacuation of a more than 12 million others, according to Chinese government sources. Reports say that to date, the flooding, triggered by unusually severe monsoonal rains, have caused tens of billions of dollars in damage across 28 provinces and regions of China. The current flooding is reported to be the worst experienced in China since 1998, when more than 4000 people died and 18 million people were displaced.

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Heavy rain on June 15-16 has triggered severe flash floods in southeastern France, killing at least 22 people according to the latest estimates from local authorities. The damage and disruption has been widespread, with hundreds of homes inundated and thousands reported to be without electricity or phone lines. Officials said around 10 people remain missing and they fear the death toll could rise. The southeastern province of Alpes Cote d’Azur has been particularly badly affected, with officials in the Var department saying that damage is severe. Reports said that between 1,500 and 2,500 people were forced to evacuate their homes and spend the night in schools or other temporary shelters, and some 104,000 houses remain without electricity in the aftermath of the flooding.

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Guy Carpenter has developed a state-of-the-art probabilistic flood model for mainland France in collaboration with hydrological and hydraulic modeling experts, JBA Consulting (JBA) and Intermap Technologies (Intermap), a global provider of high-quality 3D digital elevation models.

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Guy Carpenter a développé un modèle probabiliste d’inondation pour le territoire français, en collaboration avec un bureau d’étude spécialisé dans la modélisation hydrologique et hydraulique, JBA Consulting (JBA), et un fournisseur de modèles numériques de terrain 3D haute résolution, Intermap Technologies (Intermap).

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Heavy rain has triggered severe floods in parts of central and eastern Europe since mid-May, killing at least 18 people, inundating homes and businesses and causing widespread damage and disruption. Parts of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic have been flooded after days of heavy rain burst river defenses and inundated low-lying areas. The heavy rain was accompanied by strong winds, causing power outages and transportation disruption. Reports said southern Poland was the worst-affected area after the Vistula River burst its banks. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the damage caused by the flooding could cost around EUR2.6 billion (USD3.2 billion).

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Heavy rain has triggered severe floods in parts of central and eastern Europe over the last week, killing at least nine people, inundating homes and businesses and causing widespread damage and disruption. Parts of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic have been flooded after days of heavy rain burst river banks and inundated low-lying areas. The heavy rain was accompanied by strong winds, causing power outages and transportation disruption. Reports said southern Poland was worst-affected after the Vistula River burst its banks. Poland’s Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, said the damage caused by the flooding could cost more than EUR2 billion (USD2.5 billion).

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Heavy rainfall across south eastern parts of the United States over the first half of this week resulted in several fatalities and extensive damage to property and infrastructure. Georgia has been the worst affected state. According to the State Insurance Commissioner, the flooding in Georgia has claimed nine lives and caused around USD250 million in damage to property and tens of millions of dollars in further damage to infrastructure.

It was reported that the governor of Georgia had declared a state of emergency in 17 of the worst-affected counties and had requested President Barack Obama to declare a state of emergency for Georgia as a whole.

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Heavy rainfall across the Central European region from June 22, 2009 to June 25, 2009 has caused severe flooding in several countries, including the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, and Germany. The heavy rainfall is also reported to have prompted flood alerts for the Danube in the Slovak Republic and Hungary and has caused some flooding in Romania.

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Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC, the leading global risk and reinsurance specialist, today announced that its Instrat® quantitative and risk modeling group has introduced a new Pan Central and Eastern European (CEE) flood model. The flood model is the first developed by Guy Carpenter to cover multiple countries, effectively addressing the issue of between-country correlation of flooding events.

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Stephanie Vogg, Vice President
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2008 Reinsurance Market Position

For several years, catastrophe modeling has provided the basis for decisions on levels of reinsurance retentions and limits. All well-known modeling firms have products for modeling German storms. Some reinsurers also have developed in-house tools to estimate catastrophe exposure. The availability of new flood models and the density of extended elemental perils coverage in the primary insurance market have increased. Consequently, cedents have had a closer look at their catastrophe exposure. This, in turn, has lead to the purchase of some additional capacity.

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