Earthquakes prompt record insurance claims in 2011

The earthquake measured 5.7 on the Richter scale. PHOTO: FILE
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 on the Richter scale was felt in parts of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Monday.

On March 11, an earthquake of 4.8 jolted northwest Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan but there were no reports of casualties.

Pakistan was hit by a 7.6-magnitude earthquake on October 8, 2005 that killed more than 73,000 people and left about 3.5 million homeless, mainly in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.


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5.7 magnitude quake rocks Philippine capital-local authority
21 Mar 2011 10:54

Source: reuters // Reuters


MANILA, March 21 (Reuters) - An earthquake shook buildings in the Philippine capital on Monday and the government's volcanology and seismology institute said the tremor had an initial 5.7 to 5.8 magnitude.

The United States Geological Survey said quake measured 5.4.

(Reporting by Karen Lema)


(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)




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Magnitude 6.3 earthquake hits southern Iran
20 Dec 2010 19:07

Source: reuters // Reuters


TEHRAN, Dec 20 (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit southern Iran on Monday, 133 miles (214 km) southwest of the town of Zahedan, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake struck at a depth of 7.7 miles, it said, giving no further details. ====================== Earthquakes prompt record insurance claims in 2011 04 Jan 2012 10:32 Source: Reuters // Reuters FRANKFURT, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Insurance industry damage claims from natural disasters like the earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand reached a record $105 billion in 2011, said Munich Re, the world's biggest reinsurer. The cost to insurers from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March, which caused nearly 16,000 deaths, was estimated at $35-$40 billion, the company said on Wednesday in a review of last year's natural disasters. An earthquake in New Zealand in February added a further $13 billion to insurers' claims payout for the year, Munich Re said. The earthquakes together made up about half of last year's total insured losses from natural catastrophes, which topped the previous record of $101 billion set in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. "Normally, it is the weather-related natural catastrophes that are the dominant loss drivers," Munich Re said. Despite the heavy payouts, many observers say that the claims were not big enough on their own to provide a broad boost to reinsurers' pricing strength relative to their insurance company clients because reinsurers still have plenty of excess capital. Total economic losses last year, including those not covered by insurance, totalled $380 billion, the reinsurer said, thus also topping the previous record of $220 billion set in 2005. Munich Re's figures differ somewhat from those of rival Swiss Re published last month, which include man-made disasters in the calculation. (Reporting by Jonathan Gould; Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters) === Iran earthquakes kill 153 people in the northwest Sat, Aug 11 15:34 PM EDT By Zahra Hosseinian DUBAI (Reuters) - Two strong earthquakes struck northwest Iran on Saturday, killing 153 people and injuring more than 1,300 as buildings were reduced to rubble, Iranian officials said. Thousands fled their homes and remained outdoors as at least 20 aftershocks hit the area. Casualty numbers could well rise, Iranian officials feared, as some of the injured are in a critical condition, others are still trapped under the rubble and rescuers have yet to reach some of the affected villages. Iran is straddled by major fault lines and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in recent years, including a 6.6 magnitude quake in 2003 which turned the southeastern historic city of Bam into dust and killed more than 25,000 people. The U.S. Geological Survey measured Saturday's first quake at 6.4 magnitude and said it struck 60 km (37 miles) northeast of the city of Tabriz at a depth of 9.9 km (6.2 miles). A second quake measuring 6.3 struck 49 km (30 miles) northeast of Tabriz 11 minutes later at a similar depth. Deputy Interior Minister Hassan Ghadami said 153 people had been killed and provincial official Khalil Sa'ie said some 1,300 had been injured, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. The second quake struck near the town of Varzaghan. "The quake was so intense that people poured into the streets through fear," Fars news agency said of the town. About 210 people in Varzaghan and Ahar have been rescued from under the rubble of collapsed buildings, the official IRNA news agency said, quoting a local official. "So far 73 bodies from Varzaghan and Ahar have been handed over to the coroner's office," IRNA quoted Bahram Samadirad, a provincial official from the office, as saying. He added, "Since some people are in a critical condition and rescue workers are still trying to rescue people from under the rubble, unfortunately it is possible for the number of casualties to rise." Photographs posted by Iranian news websites showed about a dozen bodies lying on the floor in the corner of a white-tiled morgue in Ahar, and medical staff, surrounded by anxious residents, working on the injured in the open air as dusk fell. "I was just on the phone talking to my mother when she said 'there's just been an earthquake', then the line was cut," one woman from Tabriz, who lives outside Iran, wrote on Facebook after telephoning her mother in the city. "God, what has happened? After that I couldn't get through. God has also given me a slap, and it was very hard." Tabriz is a major city and trading hub far from Iran's oil producing areas and known nuclear facilities. Buildings in the city are substantially built, and the Iranian Students' News Agency said nobody in the city itself had been killed or hurt. Homes and businesses in Iranian villages, however, are often made of concrete blocks or mud brick that can crumble and collapse in a strong quake. Fars quoted lawmaker Abbas Falahi as saying he believed rescue workers had not yet been able to reach between 10 and 20 villages. A local provincial official urged people in the region to stay outdoors during the night for fear of aftershocks, according to IRNA. Falahi said people in the region were in need of bread, tents and drinking water. The Turkish Red Crescent said it was sending a truck full of emergency supplies to the border, an official said. (Reporting by Marcus George and Zahra Hosseinian; Writing Andrew Torchia; Editing by Jon Hemming) ====