Three world disasters a week noted

Press, 25 February 1987, Page 42

Three world disasters a week noted

NZPA-AP Zurich An average of three major disasters a week struck the world between 1970 and 1985, killing more than 1.5 million people and leaving 50 million homeless, says a survey by the Swiss Reinsurance Company. The survey, printed in the company’s latest newsletter, listed disasters that claimed at least 20 lives or caused more than 10 million Swiss francs ($l2 million) in damage.

There were 2305 such events over the period with total damages of $1350 billion, said the company, which insures

other insurance firms. Some 95 per cent of the deaths came in natural disasters, mainly in developing countries, and North America, the survey said. The deadliest natural disasters were 1970 floods in Bangladesh and a 1976 earthquake in China, which together killed 1.1 million people. Fires were a particular problem in Western Europe’s densely clustered industrial areas, the survey said. The biggest insured damages, SUS9BO million ($l.B billion), occurred in a July, 1984, hailstorm in

West Germany, it said. The 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania resulted in claims of SUS44O million ($845 million). More than 21,000 people died in civilian plane crashes, while 16,000 were killed in road and train accidents. Some 15,000 died in shipwrecks, of which 42 per cent were ferry disasters in the Third World. Accidents and disasters are becoming increasingly costly and their number is likely to rise in coming years, the study said. It gave no reasons.