Zurich-based catastrophe insurance data provider PERILS AG has published a preliminary estimate of industry losses from floods in Central Europe and Italy between September 14 and 20, 2024, estimating a total of €1.886 billion. As a reminder, the low-pressure system Boris (also known as Anette) caused prolonged heavy rainfall over a very large area in Central Europe in mid-September, leading to flooding in the Danube, Elbe, Oder and Vistula river basins. According to PERILS, most of the losses occurred in Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland, which accounted for about 95% of the industry's losses, followed by Italy and Slovakia.

People in the world's smallest countries, those that contribute the least to climate change, are the hardest hit, especially by flooding. And the situation is getting worse. These are the results of a study conducted by the University of Bristol and published Nov. 10 in the journal Environmental Research Letters. The research found that, on average, nearly one in five people among the inhabitants of small island developing states - about 8.5 million people in total - are currently affected by coastal and inland flooding. Three of these 57 countries, concentrated in the Pacific, Caribbean, Indian Ocean and South China Sea, namely the Bahamas, Guyana and Tuvalu, tripled that percentage to more than 60 percent of the population, according to the findings.