Earthquakes, tsunami and the nuclear accidents have inflected unprecedented damages in Japan.
Insurer AIG in a report said "the catastrophe in Japan has affected people, their homes, infrastructure, and business both in and outside of Japan, and our industry is working hard to quantify the complex impact of the devastation, a process that will take some time."
A release issued by the UN News Centre said a UN disaster team has reached Japan to assist the local authorities. International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) experts and technical support teams from other countries have also joined the local teams.
Several countries have sent specialized search and rescue teams to help authorities mount emergency efforts in the wake of the quake and tsunami, which have killed thousands of people and left many more missing or unaccounted for.
Efforts are on to assess the health consequences as a result of the release of radioactivity from the reactors. World Health Organisation(WHO) has stated that the Japanese Government has taken necessary precautions by distributing potassium iodine to those at risk and evacuating residents of areas close to Fukushima Daiichi.
The earthquake sparked widespread tsunami warnings across the Pacific that stretched from Japan to North and South America. According to the US Geological Survey(USGS), the shallow quake struck at a depth of 20 Km deep, around 125 km of the eastern coast of Japan, and 380 km northeast of Tokyo. It was reportedly the largest recorded quake in Japan's history and the fifth largest in the world since 1900.
Key concerns, according to Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance, are:
*Spreading of radiation and exposure
*Lack of transportation to affected areas
*Some 500000 people are in emergency shelters and are in need of additional food, water and blankets
*Some 6 million households are without electricity and more than 1 million households are reportedly without water.
Media reports said radiation from Japan’s stricken nuclear plant has been detected 160 km to the northeast, over the Pacific Ocean, by the US military.
A dramatic increase in the number of natural disasters, in recent years, has sparked calls for more funding and cooperation from UN agencies. 2010 saw many major disasters, including five which were assigned to the UN's top category of 'great natural catastrophes': the earthquakes in Haiti(12 January), Chile(27 February) and Central China(13 April), the heat-wave in Russia(July to September), and the floods in Pakistan(also July to September).
A report by Munich Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance firms, says 2010 saw 950 natural disasters--the second highest number since 1980 - and 295000 people died as a result. The fact that 90 per cent of the disasters were weather-related provided "further indications of advancing climate change," the report warned.
Global losses from floods, heat waves, earthquakes and hurricanes in 2010 reached 99 billion Euros of which just 28 billion Euros was insured. In the European Union, just one disaster, storm Xynthia, a gale which hit France and Spain, caused a 4.5 billion Euros of losses, of which 2.3 billion Euros was insured.
A Western news agency report quoting an insurance sector analyst said :”After the floods in Australia, the quake in New Zealand and now in the one in Japan, the bill for reinsurance is already looking expensive this year.” A Geo Risk Research report says the reinsurance companies, which act as insurers of last resort for general insurers, would be making up for majority of the losses. These companies usually take up the cost associated to an event when the claim to be settled is too high.
The 2010 World Disasters Report released by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, details both the economic and the human cost of major disasters over the last decade. The report warns that the world's 2.57 billion urban dwellers living in low and middle-income countries are particularly exposed to disaster risk.
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