When Disaster Strikes

It hasn’t been an easy 2011 for insurance companies, with the earthquake and tsunami in Japan headlining a catastrophe-heavy beginning of the year that also included a major winter storm and several devastating tornadoes in the United States. Risk modeler EQECAT says the losses in Japan could reach $39 billion, and the losses from the tornadoes in the U.S. could top $5 billion. Tom Larsen, SVP of product architecture for the Oakland-based CAT modeler, says that while these events occurred close together, there isn’t evidence of a trend, and there’s no way of knowing for sure what could be coming down the road.