Hurricane Jova to cost industry $53m – AIR

Risk modelling firm AIR Worldwide estimates that Hurricane Jova, which hit Mexico on Tuesday, will cost insurers MXN 700m ($53m).

Jova hit a sparsely populated stretch of Mexico’s pacific coast on October 11 as a Category 2 storm and then weakened as it travelled inland and northwards.

Because it was a small storm and weakened to tropical storm strength within 12 hours of landfall, damage from Jova’s winds has been limited, AIR said.

However, affected areas have been hit by flooding. “Heavy rainfall, which began as Jova’s outer rain bands approached the coast prior to landfall and is finally subsiding after the storm’s dissipation, has caused serious flooding and landslides in parts of Colima and Jalisco,” Tim Doggett, principal scientist at AIR Worldwide, said in a statement.  “Mexico’s coastal mountains enhanced precipitation on the north and east sides of the storm. As the slow-moving storm came ashore, its counterclockwise flow of air was forced over the mountainous terrain, cooling in its ascent and forming clouds and precipitation.”