Typhoon Faxai losses estimated at up to $7bn: AIR

Catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide estimates that industry insured losses from Typhoon Faxai will be between ¥340 billion ($3 billion) and ¥740 billion ($7 billion).

According to AIR, Typhoon Faxai surpassed Typhoon Higos for the strongest sustained wind speed at landfall in the region and tied with 1958's Typhoon Helen for the lowest recorded central pressure. Faxai was comparable in strength to Typhoon Jebi, which devastated the southern Shikoku Island in 2018.

Typhoon Faxai made landfall in Yokosuka, a southern suburb of Tokyo, on the main island of Honshu in Japan, at around 3 am local time on September 9.  It had one-minute sustained wind speeds of 170km/h (105 mph) and crossed Tokyo Bay to strike Tokyo City with winds still equivalent to a strong Category 2 hurricane.

Impacts were reported across Chiba, Kanagawa, and Shizuoka prefectures. Storm surge was highest along the eastern shores of Tokyo Bay: JMA recorded a storm surge of more than 1 meter in Mera, Chiba Prefecture. The city of Izu in Shizuoka Prefecture experienced 17 inches of rain in 24 hours through early Monday, with recorded rates of more than four inches per hour.

AIR’s modeled insured loss estimates include insured damage to residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural or mutual property, both structures and their contents, as well as automobiles, from wind and storm surge

Estimates do not include losses from precipitation-induced flood, landslide, losses to land or infrastructure, or contractors all risks and erection all risks, marine hull or marine cargo lines. Business interruption losses, loss adjustment expenses and the impact of the increased costs of materials, services and labor following the catastrophe are also excluded.