“This is an unprecedented event in the history of seismology and earthquake engineering—never in history has a magnitude 9.0 earthquake been so well recorded instrumentally,” said Dr. Jayanta Guin, senior vice president of research and modeling at AIR Worldwide. “With this update AIR has taken real-time loss estimation to the next level by incorporating an unprecedented quantity of data. By independently estimating the loss due to the tsunami, the combined loss estimate avoids double-counting in the affected areas.”
The combined insured loss estimate is comprised of insured losses from ground-shaking and fire-following of between 910 billion JPY (11 billion USD) and 1.7 trillion JPY ($21 billion), and insured losses from tsunami of between 650 billion JPY ($8.0 billion) and 780 billion JPY ($9.7 billion).
AIR's loss estimate includes payouts from the Japan Earthquake Reinsurance Co., Ltd. (JER) and is net of government recoveries.