Louisiana floods to cost US economy more than $10bn, according to Aon catastrophe report

Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development team, today launches the latest edition of its monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report, which evaluates the impact of the natural disaster events that occurred worldwide during August 2016. Aon Benfield is the global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor of Aon plc (NYSE: AON).  The report reveals that days of extreme rainfall across parts of the United States Gulf Coast and Midwest caused catastrophic flood damage in several communities during the month, killing at least 13 people.  Total economic losses were forecast at USD10-15 billion, while public and private insured losses were expected to be in the low-digit single billions (USD), due to the regionally low….

Disaster Response Now Includes Rapid Mapmaking

When Louisiana was hit with historic flooding, in August 2016, the federal government’s response teams went into action, including one relatively new one. At NASA, rapid-response mapmakers started pulling data from satellites and analyzing where the rain had fallen hardest—where the most help might be needed.  This rapid-response team, which, GCN reports, was only created in the past year, was using satellite data not just to monitor storms but to help with an on-the-ground response. And the NASA team wasn’t the only one leaning on information siphoned from satellites to create flood maps that could help disaster response…