Wednesday, June 1, 2022
By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor
nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
Bahamian insurers yesterday said Monday night’s heavy rainfall and flooding should be a “wake-up call” for all home and vehicle owners, plus businesses, ahead of what is expected to be an active 2022 hurricane season.
Laneka Moss, a RoyalStar Assurance claims manager, told Tribune Business that the storms - which rendered many roads in eastern New Providence virtually impassable, sending flood waters into many residential yards - were “a precursor to let us know what to anticipate” in a hurricane season that formally begins today.
She added that the property and casualty writer is preparing to receive “some” property and motor vehicle claims as a result, having gone through a similar experience following the storms that inflicted similar heavy flooding on western New Providence on May 13.
Disclosing that motor vehicle claims from that event “tended to be to total losses”, Ms Moss said property owners reported losses ranging from $4,000 up to $70,000. She added that it would take several days, while home and vehicle owners cleaned up and assessed the extent of the damage, before RoyalStar will know the extent of the likely insurance claims.
Timothy Ingraham, Summit Insurance Company’s managing director, told this newspaper that the carrier, too, received insurance claims stemming from western New Providence’s flooding almost two weeks ago. “It wasn’t hugely significant,” he added of the amounts and volume involved. “There wasn’t a huge number of claims. We had localised flooding in some areas, some houses flooded. A few vehicles suffered flood damage.
“We’ll wait and see what happens on the eastern end. We won’t know for a couple of days. Most people, if they are flooded, are trying to get their lives back together and water out the house. It will be a day or two before we know exactly what happened.”
Mr Ingraham agreed that the flooding in eastern and western New Providence “should be a wake-up call”. He added: “It’s a very small taste of what we get when we do get a storm. Hopefully people will heed the warning and prepare themselves.”
Meanwhile, Patrick Ward, Bahamas First’s president and chief executive, said he was also anticipating that the property and casualty underwriter will receive claims as a result of Monday night’s torrential downpours. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there are claims,” he told this newspaper. “We have seen claims arising from the heavy downpours we’ve had in the last couple of weeks.
“It’s an unusual amount of rainfall in a very short space of time. I would expect to see flooding arising out of that and claims coming in. I don’t expect the number of claims and amount of damage to be a material event for us.”
Comments
zemilou says...
While the damage mentioned above is unfortunate, even tragic, for those affected, insurers must go beyond simply saying such extreme flooding should be a "wake-up call" for the 2022 hurricane season. Such extreme weather events, including more severe hurricane seasons, are the result of human-induced climate change, and insurance companies must play an active role in educating Bahamians about how ever-increasing extreme weather events will affect our lives -- including how to mitigate damage in the short-term and adapt to change over the longer term.
For those who continue to turn a blind eye or deny the reality that global warming is the prime driver behind historically recent weather extremes, consider:
In 2014, Lloyd's of London, the world's oldest and biggest insurance market stated that insurers must include climate change in their modeling and noted that global payouts due to extreme weather events due to global warming continue to rise for insurers. Further, in November 2021, Lloyd's CEO John Neal called climate-related weather extremes the "ultimate systemic risk," but also "the biggest single opportunity the insurance industry has ever seen.” Translation: While insurers' payments will continue to increase, premium rises will lead to increased profits??
Similarly, in a recent publication on preparing for climate change risk, Deloitte, a Big Four accounting organization and the world's largest professional services network, began by stating "the climate change insurance risk is intensifying, examine the insurance industry’s response to climate change, and explore action items insurers should consider to address risks and achieve greater resilience."
Likewise, in 2014, the respected Swiss Re Institute which, among other things, shares "risk knowledge in re/insurance through [its] publications, data sets, client programmes and conferences" notes that, while "climate change is a manageable risk for re/insurers...the rising threat is alarming. In response, the industry needs to improve risk models to better assess climate hazards: the mandate is to ensure development of the capabilities to be able to underwrite natural catastrophe risks in the future. Re/insurers can also play a key role in advancing the transition to a low-carbon economy by providing solutions to manage risks."
Insurers -- and other private sector leaders -- consider the call to "play a key role...by providing solutions to manage risks." And please don't beat around the bush: Climate change/global warming is real and will increasingly impact the lifestyle and livelihood of our people.
Posted 1 June 2022, 4:49 p.m. Suggest removal
ThisIsOurs says...
I'm baffled. While I believe there are weather events Ive never seen before, exactly what new happened on Monday that hasn't happened for decades? It rained and the streets flooded. I have a vivid, absolutely vivid memory of my grandparents sending someone to pick up my siblings and I up from kidnergarten, KIDNERGARTEN, because the way home was flooded. We had to be lifted over the school wall to avoid the heavily flooded streets.
I've also noted for the past several years our "rainy season" has been virtually non existent.
What concerns me here is when retailers jump on a story as justification to increase prices. Cars been stalling in flooded streets for decades.
Posted 2 June 2022, 1:14 p.m. Suggest removal
tribanon says...
Is the Pinecrest area where Snake's latest housing development will sit still underwater? LOL
Posted 3 June 2022, 2:19 p.m. Suggest removal
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