Sabine, the powerful winter storm battered Europe last week, cost German insurers a grand total of EUR 675 million, from 540,000 insured losses, the German Insurers Association said.

Out of this total, half million claims relate to property insurance, totaling compensations worth EUR 600 million, while about 40,000 motor insurance claims are adding to this cost about EUR 75 million.

"Sabine" is ranked sixth in the worst winter storms in Germany since 2002, while "Kyrill" (2007) continues to lead the ranking, with more than EUR 3 billion in insured losses, ahead of "Jeanette" (2002) with EUR 1.3 billion and "Friederike" (2018) with EUR 1 billion.


In Germany, losses from natural hazards totaled EUR 3.2 billion in 2019, an amount fairly close to the one recorded in 2018 and below the long-term average of around EUR 3.7 billion.

While over 90% of homeowners in Germany are insured against storms and hail, only 45% are insured against natural hazards such as heavy rain and floods, the GDV data show.