Heavy Rain and Typhoon... This Year's Vehicle Flood Damage Reaches Record High

Cars flooded in the Gangnam area of Seoul due to heavy rain last month [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] This year, the scale of vehicle flood damage caused by heavy rain and typhoons has reached an all-time high.

According to the insurance industry on the 11th, as of 3 p.m. on the 6th, a total of 6,762 cases (estimated) of vehicle flood damage due to Typhoon Hinnamnor were reported to 12 domestic non-life insurance companies. The estimated damage amount reached 54.632 billion KRW.

Typhoon damage occurred in Pohang, Gyeongju, Ulsan, Jeju, and other areas. Additional damaged vehicles are expected to be reported even after the holidays, so the scale of damage is expected to increase further.

The scale of vehicle flood damage caused by typhoons and heavy rain this year is the largest ever. During the concentrated heavy rain centered around Gangnam, Seoul last month, 11,685 flooded vehicles were reported to insurance companies, with an estimated damage amount of 163.7 billion KRW.

On the morning of the 7th, Marine Corps soldiers are conducting restoration work in the underground parking lot of an apartment in Pohang, Gyeongbuk, which was flooded due to the impact of Typhoon Hinnamnor, the 11th typhoon.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Adding the damage from this Hinnamnor, the estimated damage amount exceeds 200 billion KRW. This amount far surpasses the damage of 115.7 billion KRW caused by Typhoons Bavi, Maysak, and Haishen in 2020.

The increased damage this year is due to the heavy rain last month pouring mainly over the affluent Gangnam area, where many luxury cars were flooded. At that time, more than 3,000 foreign cars suffered flood damage.

Less than a month after the flood damage caused by last month's concentrated heavy rain, another large-scale vehicle flood damage occurred due to the landing impact of Hinnamnor, causing non-life insurance companies to worry about an increase in automobile insurance loss ratios.

Non-life insurance companies expect the automobile insurance loss ratio to rise by 2 to 3 percentage points compared to the previous month due to the concentrated heavy rain last month. Although insurance companies made significant profits in the first half of the year as the automobile insurance loss ratio improved due to reduced vehicle traffic caused by the resurgence of COVID-19, they expect the profit scale to decrease in the second half of the year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.