Almost four months after the summer’s deadly floods, insurance companies have received more than 71,000 claims with damages amounting to over €2.1 billion.
Most damage reports came from Liège, Verviers and Trooz, according to Nieuwsblad. Apart from damage to houses and buildings, 6,602 cars were damaged in the flood, and many of those are completely unsalvageable.
“In the future, we have to think about how we build, about the materials we use and about the places where we build,” Hein Lannoy, CEO of Assuralia, told the paper.
Assuralia is an insurance umbrella organisation, which compiled the figures on the record-setting damage: 71,746 registered claims for all categories combined, with a total value of over €2.163 billion.
Credit: Belga
“Cooperation between the (re)insurance sector and the authorities must ensure that it remains affordable for individuals and companies to insure risks,” said Lannoy.
Of the 71,746 claims, 63,692 are related to homes, 1,452 to businesses, and 6,602 are for vehicles. Some of those cars can be repaired, but most are irreparably damaged by the water. The damage was greatest in the Wallonia Region, according to Nieuwsblad.
In Liege alone, there were 6,977 cases of damage for a total cost of €208.9 million. Verviers was also hit hard and had a total of 3,871 claims for €142 million, followed by Trooz (2,736 claims, €128 million), Chaudfontaine (2.944 claims, €125.5 million) and Pepinster (1,909 claims, €93.7 million).
It has not yet been decided whether fire insurance (which also covers water damage) will become more expensive next year.
Weather forecasters and scientists have been warning for a long time that such extreme weather conditions will become more frequent as a result of climate change.
