According to Moody's, the Xynthia storm will heavily strain the accounts of the insurers while reinsurers will be clearly less affected. This storm, which hit Western Europe in February, lingered on for some time on France. Less violent than the storm of 1999, it should cost insurers sums between 500 million and 1 billion EUR (between 681 million and 1.36 billion USD) just for the damages caused in France alone. The 1999 Klaus storm attained 1.68 billion EUR (2.29 billion USD) of insured losses. The French federation of insurance companies (FFSA) announced that insurers could sustain a claim worth 1.2 billion EUR (1.6 billion USD) if not more. With the French state declaring the state of natural catastrophe, reinsurers will hardly be affected. It is CCR, the national French reinsurer, which will bear at least 50% of the flood-related claims.
