The damage from Cyclone Belal, which hit Reunion Island in mid-January, is estimated at 100 million euros, including 82 million for individuals, 14 million for professionals and 4 million for automobiles, France Assureurs announced on Tuesday. January 30.
This cyclone which crossed the Indian Ocean island on January 15, with winds exceeding 250 km/h, “caused a total of 42,100 claims,” the professional federation said in a press release, noting that insurers were “fully mobilized alongside their policyholders”.
Second costliest cyclone
Belal caused the death of four people, with “significant gusts of wind, intense precipitation causing flooding of numerous rivers and strong swells,” recalled the federation. The damage, ultimately less catastrophic than what the population and the authorities feared, was mainly recorded in the north and east of the department.
“The damage (…) is covered under damage insurance contracts,” assured the president of France Assureurs, Florence Lustman, quoted in the press release. This is the second most costly cyclone in Reunion, after Cyclone Dina, whose damage reached 169 million euros in 2002, according to France Assureurs.