The economic cost of floods likely to reach 1.6 billion USD

Winter floods and the recent storms that hit Britain have been particularly destructive. The audit firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, has raised its January estimates to 630 million GBP (1.038 billion USD), 500 million GBP (824 million USD) of which to be supported by insurers. These figures will be revised upwards if the rain falling on the southwest of England does not stop.

Rivers on London suburbs threaten to overflow their banks while estimates are likely to reach 1 billion GBP (1.6 billion USD) if bad weather persists. Household and operating losses insurance policies are the hardest hit. A future premium increase is expected as it was the case after the big freeze period in 2010.