The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami demonstrated the traditional catastrophe challenge at extraordinary scale: massive claim volumes across multiple prefectures, severe infrastructure damage and large numbers of total-loss assessments. The response required standardised assessment processes, surge capacity, business continuity planning, and close coordination among insurers, brokers, adjusters, reinsurers, and government agencies.

This event reinforced awareness of low-frequency, high-severity catastrophes, and their potential for cascading impacts. Subsequent events in Japan and Canada, however, showed that catastrophe risk was becoming more complex than an isolated major event primarily causing physical property damage.

One significant change has been the growing relevance of secondary perils and losses extending beyond direct physical damage.

The 2013 Southern Alberta floods marked an important turning point in Canada. Close to 80,000 people were evacuated and insured losses exceeded CAD 1.7 billion¹.With residential overland flood coverage generally unavailable at the time, claims teams had to distinguish between indemnifiable sewer backup, and typically 'uninsured' overland flooding, often leading to very different coverage outcomes for seemingly similar damage. The event helped expose a wider protection gap and contributed to the development of residential overland flood insurance in Canada¹.

Three years later, the Fort McMurray wildfire also displaced policyholders for extended periods. Additional Living Expenses became a significant part of the response alongside property damage, restricted access and a lengthy rebuilding process.² Claims teams needed to make quick payments for additional living expenses that were being incurred immediately in the aftermath of the wildfire, while the full extent of property claims was still being determined.

By the 2024 Calgary hailstorm, the challenge was volume. Approximately 130,000 claims were generated, including around 70,000 vehicle claims³, with CatIQ's final industry loss estimate reaching CAD 3.35 billion⁴. The surge stretched adjusting capacity and the availability of contractors and repair services, contributing to delays, particularly for property repairs. How do you deploy claims and vendor resources across this volume? Which claims can be streamlined, and where is specialist expertise most needed?

Japan's experience provides a strong parallel. Typhoon Jebi in 2018 generated more than 850,000 claim payments⁵ and approximately USD 13 billion in insured losses⁷. It also demonstrated how catastrophe impacts can extend far beyond physical property damage. Flooding at Kansai International Airport, became a highly visible symbol of these broader consequences. As a major export hub, the disruption forced manufacturers to reroute shipments through other airports, illustrating how damage to a single piece of critical infrastructure can cascade into business interruption and supply chain disruption.  

A second challenge is managing accumulation when major events occur in rapid succession. In 2019, Typhoons Faxai and Hagibis struck Japan only weeks apart, generating approximately USD 7 billion and USD 8 billion in insured losses respectively⁷. Successive events can strain claims resources and make loss allocation particularly challenging where assessment of damage from the first event is still ongoing. Determining the extent and cause of damage attributable to each event, including distinguishing between causes such as flood and storm surge, and allocating associated business interruption losses, can be particularly complex.

Canada faced a similar challenge in 2024 when insured losses hit an all-time high of CAD 8.5 billion⁸. Within 25 days, Toronto flooding, the Jasper wildfire, Calgary hail, and flooding associated with the remnants of Hurricane Debby affected different parts of the country⁹. Debby-related flooding around Montreal is a reminder that tropical systems can create significant insured losses far from traditional hurricane landfall areas¹⁰. Toronto and Montreal also demonstrated how infrastructure and drainage vulnerabilities can amplify losses^6,10.

The experience in both countries raises a practical question:

The industry's response has evolved accordingly. Remote claims handling and digital workflows allow work to be supported outside affected regions and help deploy experienced professionals where their expertise is most needed.

Satellite imagery, drones, aerial surveys, geospatial analysis and AI-assisted assessment can provide earlier views of damage, support resource prioritisation, and reduce the need for some on-site inspections. Technology does not replace experienced claims professionals; it helps Claims deploy scarce expertise more effectively.

Catastrophe response also increasingly extends beyond Claims. Effective response connects Claims with Underwriting, Exposure Management, Catastrophe Modelling, Reserving, Actuarial, Finance and client service. What Claims sees after an event can provide insight that helps other functions understand how risk is developing.

Many of these capabilities, developed in response to successive catastrophe events, are now embedded in day-to-day operations. Activities once considered exceptional catastrophe measures have become standard practice, improving preparedness for future events.

Looking across Japan and Canada, several questions remain:

• Are secondary perils still secondary when they can generate multi-billion-dollar losses?
• How effectively are Claims insights feeding back into underwriting, modelling and reserving?
• How do we prepare for what we do not yet know?

We do not know how the next catastrophe will unfold. The experience of Canada and Japan shows why the objective cannot be to anticipate every circumstance. It is to learn from each event and build the expertise, flexibility, and connections needed to adapt when the next one arrives. Our role as Reinsurers and Insurers is to be there in the moment our clients are in distress and help get them back into operation as soon as feasibly possible. When we deliver on that promise at the moment it matters most, we build trust and lasting client relationships.