Close
Insurers braced for stormy times ahead
20 March 2006
Two potentially devastating hurricanes are forecast to strike the US this year as insurers brace themselves for an unprecedented third consecutive year of fierce tropical storms.
Professor Mark Saunders [UCL Benfield Hazard Research Centre] believes storm activity will be 40pc higher than on average. He said: "We are currently predicting there will be 15 tropical storms, of which eight will be hurricanes. Four will be intense."
Professor Saunders, who is also the lead scientist and project manager of website Tropical Storm Risk, forecast five tropical storms will hit the US, two of which will be hurricanes. …
"Never before have we had three consecutive years of such high activity, so this would be unprecedented," he added.
"If this is a bad year, then people will start sitting up and will ask serious questions about what is going on with our climate. It will be hard to explain it in terms of being a cycle."
Yvette Essen, 'Daily Telegraph', 20 March 2006
Follow us
