Natural Disaster Losses Decline After Major Storms Spare U.S.

Insurance losses from natural disasters fell last year after the U.S. was spared the full wrath of a major Atlantic hurricane.

That’s according to the reinsurance firm Munich Re, which recorded total losses of $150 billion from events like hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires last year, down from $186 billion in 2018 when two major storms hit the U.S. While the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season saw an above-average number of storms, the biggest of them swerved away from the U.S. mainland.

“It was simply luck for the U.S. that the Bahamas took the force of Hurricane Dorian,” Ernst Rauch,…