International Day for Disaster Reduction<\/a>, Lloyd\u2019s personnel from around the world take a moment to reflect on the events and the efforts to respond to them, as well as considering what this says about climate change and managing future risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\nResponding quickly and effectively to natural catastrophe events has been at the core of what the Lloyd\u2019s market does for centuries, said Jon Hancock, Performance Management Director, Lloyd\u2019s. \u201cIn times like these the market steps up a gear to respond as quickly as possible to claims from all over the world. In fact, Lloyd\u2019s has paid close to three quarters of a billion dollars ($738m) in claims so far for Harvey, Irma and Maria. We are living up to our reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With a network of representatives across the world, Lloyd\u2019s has been able to swing into action quickly, responding to claims and working with policyholders to address and mitigate losses as well as assisting with disposal efforts and repairs. \u201cIn one case Lloyd\u2019s advanced tens of millions of dollars to a Florida Keys hotel chain within days of it suffering severe storm damage,\u201d said Phil Godwin, Lloyd\u2019s Head of Claims. \u201cThis has enabled them to begin repairs and resume business as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the storm battered southern US, one of the many operational challenges involved in responding to claims has been accessing damaged areas. Lloyd\u2019s agent, Rock O\u2019Keefe, a manager in the cargo claims department at Dufour Laskay & Strouse, Inc., which has offices in Texas and Louisiana, said that his team had received 12 individual assignments from one client in a single day. He also noted that almost all the Lloyd\u2019s agents he\u2019d been in contact with in the affected regions had suffered power outages themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Irma passed directly across the British Virgin Islands (BVI) as a category 5 storm, Chris Haycraft, a Lloyd\u2019s agent living in Tortola on the BVI, witnessed it first-hand. \u201cThe port was a mess,\u201d he said. \u201cForty foot containers had been thrown around like pieces of plastic, warehouses were destroyed, metal bent in impossible angles, all the buildings gone. Traditional VHF radio became the only mode of communication or you walked to where you needed to be to find someone\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsewhere in the US more than a dozen wildfires are scorching northern California, aided by the state’s epic drought, low humidity and high winds. Richard Magrath, Lloyd\u2019s Regional Director for the Western US, said: \u201cIn recent decades, fire seasons in California have grown longer and more destructive, something scientists attribute in part to increased dryness caused by climate change. The US Forest Service declared 2017 the most expensive fire season on record with costs exceeding $2 billion, and that was before the Northern California wildfires broke out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other parts of the world Lloyd\u2019s is supporting the training of international aid workers and first responders in communities hit by recent disasters, through its partnership with international disaster relief charity, RedR. Work is ongoing in response to Irma, as well as the devastating floods in South Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn a climate changing world, this is exactly what we should expect\u201d said Trevor Maynard, Lloyd\u2019s Head of Innovation. \u201cWe should expect to be surprised and we should expect records to be broken. Such events starkly highlight the need for urgent and rapid action as well as strong leadership both politically and in the business world.\u201d To help countries with their response to natural catastrophes, Maynard added, a group of businesses at Lloyd\u2019s have launched a Disaster Risk Facility which pools more than $400m capacity along with expertise to develop reinsurance solutions for natural catastrophe risks in emerging economies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Originally posted: https:\/\/www.lloyds.com\/news-and-insight\/news-and-features\/lloyds-news\/2017\/10\/lloyds-market-responds-to-recent-natural-disasters-around-the-world<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Last month was one of the most active months of any Atlantic hurricane season. Irma and Maria both impacted the Caribbean and US in September, regions already badly hit by the force of Harvey just a week earlier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-1769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights-historical","tag-insights"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lcmsolutions.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lcmsolutions.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lcmsolutions.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcmsolutions.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcmsolutions.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lcmsolutions.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcmsolutions.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lcmsolutions.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcmsolutions.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcmsolutions.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}