The rains keep coming, as flood economic loss estimates from Swiss Re Group show, and the results are like a parody of a joke: everyone keeps talking about the weather but no one does anything about it.

According to the reinsurance and research firm, "global economic losses from floods amounted to USD 82 billion, yet insured losses stood at slightly more than USD 20 billion, indicating a large protection gap." Those were the result of 50 severe flood events around the world.

Flood damage represented 31% of global economic losses from natural disasters—only two percentage points less than tropical cyclones, a category that includes cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons. Floods affect almost a third of the world's population.

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