Event Response

The beginning of the new year saw Storm Henk cause severe disruption across southern Britain. Intense winds and heavy rain led to toppled trees and flooding, blocking roads, bridges and rail lines as thousands of households suffered power cuts. Two people are known to have died due to adverse weather conditions.

Substantial rainfall in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Jasper has swamped northern Queensland, with several towns across Australia’s Great Barrier Reef coast being completely cut off. The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) declared the damage caused by the cyclone as an insurance catastrophe.

Strong winds and torrential rain caused by Storm Babet brought unprecedented flooding to various parts of the UK and Ireland. Seven people are known to have died in weather-related incidents since the storm made landfall.

Two people died and more than 100 were injured when the remnants of Typhoon Haikui brought flooding to Hong Kong in early September 2023. The storm continued its path into southern China, where the city of Shenzhen experienced nearly 500mm of rainfall in a single day.

In early September 2023, three days of extreme rainfall triggered by Storm Daniel submerged central Greece, washing away roads, isolating towns, cutting off power, and trapping people. Flooding also affected Turkey and Bulgaria with at least 22 people losing their lives across the three countries. The floods in Europe were followed on 11 September by a devastating national disaster in Libya, as Storm Daniel’s extreme rainfall caused two dams to burst in the city of Derna, leading to at least 5,000 deaths and likely many thousands more.

This summer, the weather event named Idalia tore into Florida as a powerful hurricane, before heading to Georgia and the Carolinas as a tropical storm. Described as the strongest weather event to hit Florida’s Big Bend region in 100 years, Idalia flooded streets, toppled power lines, and destroyed homes. At least three people are known to have died in rain-related incidents so far.