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The consequences of the flood disaster: Destroyed houses in Altenahr, Rhineland-Palatinate
Photo:
Reiner Zensen / imago images / Reiner Zensen
The flood disaster in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia will be the most expensive damage in the history of the insurance company Provinzial.
By Monday, the customers had reported more than 33,000 claims with a total volume of 761.3 million euros, said the insurer belonging to the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe.
The total amount of damage is currently not foreseeable due to "the variety and complexity of the damage patterns and the unbelievable extent of the disaster".
The entire flooded area in both federal states falls into the business area of Provinzial, which was only created last year from two insurers of the same name.
By far the largest share is accounted for by residential building and household contents insurance, in which more than 29,000 claims were reported.
In addition, 31 million euros in damage to more than 4,000 vehicles were reported.
"Now it's about quick help for those affected," said CEO Wolfgang Breuer.
More than 70 million euros in compensation have already been paid out.
Estimated insurance damage of up to 5.5 billion euros
The insurance association GDV estimated the insured damage in Germany as a result of the low "Bernd" at 4.5 to 5.5 billion euros.
Heavy rains for days in the Eifel and Rhineland had caused small rivers to overflow their banks and led to flash floods that washed away houses and destroyed roads and bridges.
The loss estimate by Provinzial even exceeds that of the market leader Allianz, who had estimated the insured losses of its customers at more than half a billion euros last week.
The French insurer AXA spoke - including the floods in neighboring Belgium - of a net burden of 400 million euros.
During a visit to the affected Stolberg near Aachen, Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said that the reconstruction could cost more than six billion euros.
Around this amount has been spent on reconstruction work after the last major flood disaster in 2013, said Scholz.
hba / Reuters
