Event Response

Storm Claudia brought record-breaking rainfall and flooding across parts of England, Wales, Spain and the Canary Islands, triggering a major incident and numerous flood alerts. In Portugal, the storm sadly caused some fatalities.

Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on 28 October 2025 as a Category 5 hurricane with 185 mph (295 km/h) sustained winds and a central pressure under 900 mb, and is among the strongest Atlantic Hurricanes on record.

Areas across southern Asia have been hit by two typhoons in late September, causing heavy rainfall, high winds and significant flooding, resulting in the deaths of at least 25 from Typhoon Ragasa and more than 30 from Typhoon Bualoi.

From 16 July 2025 torrential rains hit South Korea over a 5-day period, leading to record-breaking hourly rainfall and resulting in the deaths of at least 18 people, with a further nine still missing.

Between 4 and 6 July 2025, Central Texas experienced catastrophic flash flooding, primarily impacting Kerr County and the surrounding Hill Country region. The floods claimed at least 120 lives, with over 161 individuals still reported missing as of July 11.

The Mid North Coast and Hunter regions in New South Wales faced extensive flooding in May 2025. Prolonged intense rains filled major rivers like the Manning and Gloucester rivers and brought record-breaking 24-hour rainfalls to Taree and Port Macquarie.

Early April 2025 saw torrential rains battering down across the South and Midwest USA just after a slew of storms in March. A Category 5 atmospheric river was behind the destructive floods and wind, which resulted in deaths across seven states – Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana and Mississippi.

Monsoon-like weather where tropical moisture surges, coupled with ex-Tropical Cyclone Diane, caused flooding in central and southwestern parts of Queensland, Australia.

Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred is the seventh named storm of the Australian cyclone season and made landfall along Australia's east coast significantly impacting southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales.

Early in February, torrential rain inundated several parts of North Queensland in Australia, leading to hundreds of evacuations in Townsville, Cardwell and Ingham, power outages and the collapse of the Ollera Creek Bridge.

In late October 2024, Spain experienced catastrophic flooding, particularly affecting the eastern regions of Valencia, Murcia, and Castilla-La Mancha. The deluge resulted in significant loss of life, with at least 227 fatalities.

Hurricane Milton has emerged as one of the most significant hurricanes in recent history. As it made its way across Florida it left behind widespread destruction and devastation.

Hurricane Helene has caused widespread devastation across the south-eastern United States after making landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region as a powerful Category 4 storm. The hurricane brought severe flooding, storm surges, and wind damage to Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, affecting over 2 million people.

Storm Boris has brought widespread catastrophic flooding to central and eastern Europe, with almost two million people affected across eight countries. At least 24 people are known to have died over the course of the event, and dozens of communities were cut off from the outside world by flood waters, landslides, and power outages.

In early August, Hurricane Debby struck Florida with the remnants moving northwards through the eastern United States and into eastern Canada. At least eight people died in the United States and one person in Canada’s Quebec province due to heavy rains and flash flooding.

In late July 2024, Typhoon Gaemi brought heavy rains to the Philippines and Taiwan which caused intense flooding and landslides. The effects of the storm were also felt in southern China where floods damaged infrastructure and crops and more than 30 people are reported to have died.

Torrential rain hit Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in May causing extreme flooding in southern Germany at the beginning of June. At least four people are known to have died, and thousands were evacuated from their homes as flood defences failed.

Heavy rainfall brought devastation to the southern states of Brazil in spring 2024, with the worst-hit areas being in Rio Grande do Sul. Over 100 people are known to have died in the floods, with millions affected by the wider effects of the event.

Heavy rains lashed southern China’s Guangdong Province in April, flooding residential areas, agricultural land, waterways and roads. Four people are reported to have died and 10 were reported missing due to the floods, with more fatalities caused after a highway collapsed in a later event.

The heaviest rainfall in 75 years brought the United Arab Emirates to a halt as flooding caused severe disruption at Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest hubs for international air traffic. Flooding also affected Oman, where 19 people lost their lives (Forbes, 2024).

The beginning of the new year saw Storm Henk cause severe disruption across southern Britain. Intense winds and heavy rain led to toppled trees and flooding, blocking roads, bridges and rail lines as thousands of households suffered power cuts.

Substantial rainfall in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Jasper has swamped northern Queensland, with several towns across Australia’s Great Barrier Reef coast being completely cut off. The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) declared the damage caused by the cyclone as an insurance catastrophe.

Strong winds and torrential rain caused by Storm Babet brought unprecedented flooding to various parts of the UK and Ireland. Seven people are known to have died in weather-related incidents since the storm made landfall.

Two people died and more than 100 were injured when the remnants of Typhoon Haikui brought flooding to Hong Kong in early September 2023. The storm continued its path into southern China, where the city of Shenzhen experienced nearly 500mm of rainfall in a single day.

In early September 2023, three days of extreme rainfall triggered by Storm Daniel submerged central Greece, washing away roads, isolating towns, cutting off power, and trapping people. Flooding also affected Turkey and Bulgaria with at least 22 people losing their lives across the three countries.

This summer, the weather event named Idalia tore into Florida as a powerful hurricane, before heading to Georgia and the Carolinas as a tropical storm. Described as the strongest weather event to hit Florida’s Big Bend region in 100 years, Idalia flooded streets, toppled power lines, and destroyed homes.

In August, heavy rains lashed two-thirds of Slovenia, leading to historic flooding in the Alpine country, with damages estimated at 500 million Euros ($544 million USD). At least six people died as rivers overflowed, destroying homes, fields, roads, and bridges.

Relentless rainfall in several north-eastern US states flooded roads, triggered evacuations and halted some airline travel. Eleven million people in the New England region remained under flood watch as of 11 July 2023 as almost 250mm (10 inches) of rain fell in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Monsoonal flooding is an annual event in India, but this July the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi has been hit particularly hard, as water levels in the Yamuna river broke records that had stood for 45 years.

From 16 May, six months’ rain fell in a day and a half in Italy, leaving more than 20 rivers bursting their banks. These floods came just two weeks after a previous flood event in the Emilia-Romagna region.

In early May 2023, more than two weeks’ worth of rain fell in a few hours and turned roads to rivers in the south-western English county of Somerset.

Tropical Cyclone Freddy lasted for over a month, causing devastating floods and landslides across large areas of southern and eastern Africa. More than 400 people died across Malawi, Mozambique, and Madagascar, with thousands of homes destroyed.

Extreme rainfall brought flooding to Auckland in January, which was followed by more devastating floods caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.

Heavy rain has battered Malaysia, resulting in flooding which has caused severe damage and displacement. The most-affected states include Johor, Sabah, and Pahang. Tens of thousands of people had to flee their homes due to the flooding.

On the back of a historic drought, deadly storms brought incessant rainfall to California, inundating much of the state’s coastline, farmland and valleys. The widespread flooding has killed at least 20 people and more than 200,000 businesses and homes were left without power.

Ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie caused havoc in Western Australia (WA) as it brought heavy rain and damaging wind to the region, cutting off towns, forcing road closures and transforming areas of the landscape into an inland sea. The cyclone saw homes and businesses being swamped, people evacuated and animals fleeing the affected areas.

Hurricane Ian, one of the strongest and costliest hurricanes in US history, hit Florida on 28 September 2022 and made its second US landfall two days later in South Carolina. The death toll passed 110 and is expected to keep rising, whilst 700,000 homes and businesses remained without power four days later in Florida alone. The residents of Florida and the Carolinas are facing a recovery that is expected to cost billions of dollars.

One of the biggest storms to hit Japan in decades, super typhoon Nanmadol triggered landslides and brought record-breaking rain to south-west Japan. Two people have died and 90 were left injured, whilst nine million people were told to evacuate their homes.

Kentucky and Virginia were hit by severe flooding at the end of July and into August 2022, leading to the loss of at least 33 lives and damage to homes and infrastructure.

From 9 May 2022, Bangladesh and India began to experience a wave of storms which brought widespread flooding and landslides, affecting over 2 million people and causing at least 60 fatalities.

Between 8 and 21 April 2022, the slow-moving storm Issa brought long periods of heavy rain to KwaZulu-Natal which caused flooding and mudslides in Durban and surrounding areas, affecting over 40,000 people.

Queensland and New South Wales have experienced some of the worst flooding ever seen after areas received almost a year's worth of rain in just a few days, with at least 12 fatalities reported.

For the first time since the Met Office began annually issuing names for storms, three named storms hit the UK within a seven-day period (BBC News, 2022c), with Storm Eunice labelled the ‘worst storm in decades’ (Guardian, 2022a). Four people lost their lives as a result of the storms and significant damage was caused by high winds and huge waves, as well as by flood.

At least 77 people have been confirmed dead and thousands of homes damaged after severe floods in East Africa in January and February 2022, following the landfall of two tropical storms.

In December 2021, a superstorm swept over the south of the Philippines and intensified severe weather conditions in the Malaysian Peninsula, contributing to widespread flooding affecting thousands.

The Pacific Northwest experienced significant and widespread flooding after a powerful storm brought record rainfall in November 2021. Further rainfall and flooding was experienced in January 2022.

A hurricane-like storm in the Mediterranean caused significant flooding in Sicily, southern Italy, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, resulting in at least 10 fatalities due to the flash floods.

Between 1–14 October 2021, Shanxi province experienced the highest recorded rainfall totals on record for October in this region, leading to widespread flooding that affected 1.76 million people in 76 different counties.

Hurricane Ida became the ninth named storm of the 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season and the fifth-strongest in history. Following landfall on 29 August, Ida brought widespread rainfall and flooding to Louisiana, followed by New York City and the US East coast.

In July 2021, many parts of London experienced severe flash flooding, resulting in at least 2,000 claims and at least £100m of insured loss.

Central Europe was hit by widespread flooding in July. Over 227 people lost their lives in Germany and Belgium, with thousands more affected across the region, including in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria.

At least 18,000 people have been evacuated from New South Wales following severe flooding across the state from 22 March to 25 March 2021, with parts of Queensland also impacted by the event.

Storm Christoph brought strong winds, heavy rain and snow to the UK between 19 and 21 January 2021. Approximately 3,000 people were evacuated from their homes, with an estimated 400-600 residential and 100 commercial properties affected by floods.

Indonesia experienced widespread flooding throughout January 2021 as a result of the La Niña phenomenon, with some states in the country declaring a state of emergency.

Since early October 2020, Vietnam has experienced a succession of six tropical storms and typhoons which have caused extreme rainfall and widespread flooding to much of central Vietnam.

Hurricane Laura made landfall on Thursday 27 August just after midnight local time. Classified as a Category 4 hurricane when it hit Louisiana, Laura was the strongest storm to have made landfall in the state in more than a century, with wind speeds of up to 150mph, and caused storm surge flooding in areas of Louisiana and Texas.

Many parts of China have been suffering from severe flooding over the past few weeks, including along the Yangtze river. The floods are estimated to be worst to affect the country since 1998.

During February 2020 the UK was hit by three storms in quick succession, bringing sustained periods of heavy rainfall and widespread flooding across much of England and Wales. Around 4,000 to 5,000 properties were flooded during this event.

Jakarta welcomed the new year with severe flooding across the city and surrounding areas. Up to 300,000 people are believed to have been displaced by the floods, reported as the worst seen in a decade.

The north of England and the East Midlands experienced severe rainfall and flooding, with Sheffield and Doncaster particularly affected, as well as nearby towns and villages.

Typhoon Hagibis, the worst storm to hit the country in 60 years, made landfall in Japan on 12 October, bringing widespread flooding and landslides across eight prefectures.

Typhoon Lekima (known as Typhoon Hanna in the Philippines) caused widespread damage and flooding across eastern China, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan and the Philippines.

The countries of India, Bangladesh and Nepal experienced widespread, severe flooding in July 2019, coinciding with the two year anniversary of the deadly, 'unprecedented' monsoon flooding of 2017 in the same region.

The island of Kyushu in southern Japan has been affected by wide-scale flooding and landslides, bringing widespread disruption to millions of residents, businesses and transport networks across the region.

On 20 May 2019, 14 tornadoes swept through the US Midwest, exacerbating widespread flash flooding in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri.

Our Event Response team has produced a flood footprint and commentary for the widespread flooding in Quebec province, as a result of continued rainfall and snowmelt.

Two months’ worth of rainfall fell within nine hours to cause flooding across the city of Rio de Janeiro, resulting in an estimated 10 fatalities.

Flash flooding in March 2019 has caused widespread disruption across Iran, with some cities receiving almost half of their annual rainfall in just one week and a reported 70 fatalities at time of writing.

Cyclone Idai made landfall near Beira City in Mozambique on 15 March 2019, with wind speeds of up 177 km/hr, causing extensive flooding across Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

JBA’s event response team produced a report on 4 February 2019 providing details of the Townsville flood event, as well as additional event commentary on 7 February 2019. One month on from the event, as flood waters finally recede, we take a more detailed look at the onset of the event, its impact and JBA’s 5m flood footprint, which can be used to help clients assess the impact of this event. Finally, we consider this event in the context of ongoing flood risk management in Australia.

Properties in the Australian city of Townsville have been flooded following heavy monsoon rains, forcing officials to open the floodgates of the Ross River Dam, which reached a record-breaking 213% of its capacity.

Torrential rain fell in Sydney on 28 November 2018, with reports of more than 100mm of rain falling across various areas of Sydney in less than two hours, making it the wettest day since 1984.

Strong storms brought severe rainfall and high winds to much of Europe, resulting in flooding in Italy, with the northern cities of Venice and Treviso especially affected.

Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, is one of the largest cities in the world. However, frequent flooding continues to result in significant economic losses and casualties. One of the most severe events in recent years was the 2007 floods, which resulted in 57 deaths and 420,000 people being displaced (ReliefWeb 2013). More recently, the 2013 floods inundated the central business district (CBD), homes close to the river banks and the Merdeka presidential Palace (Jensen & Rahadiana 2013; Vaswani 2013).

Coastal flooding occurred earlier this week in the Mekong Delta (Vietnam) due to a combination of high tides, heavy rainfall and high-water levels which eroded embankments on the outskirts of Can Tho City.

Hurricane Michael made landfall on Wednesday 10 October, bringing widespread damage and flooding to Florida's Panhandle.

Hurricane Florence has caused widespread inland and coastal flooding across the US east coast, with 1.7 million people evacuated and multiple fatalities.

Torrential rain in northern and central Nigeria has coincided with high river levels to exacerbate the flood risk in the states of Kano, Nasarawa and Niger.

Typhoon Jebi became the joint strongest typhoon in 2018 in the Northern Hemisphere as it caused significant wind and flood damage to southwest Japan.

Typhoon Rumbia made landfall in Shanghai, China, and, as it moved further inland, brought high rainfall to Shandong province.

Unprecedented summer Monsoon rainfall throughout June, July and August has left a wake of devastating floods across the state of Kerala.

South western prefectures of Japan have been severely impacted by flooding and associated landslides following Tropical Storm Prapiroon’s passage over the country.

Winter Storm Oliver caused record-breaking flooding from Texas to Michigan.

Ex-tropical Cyclone Gita is curving towards New Zealand after it left a devastating trail of destruction through Tonga and parts of Samoa, southern Fiji and New Caledonia.

Ex-hurricane Ophelia hit the Republic of Ireland and thereafter the United Kingdom on Monday 16 October, causing minor flooding and more significant wind damage throughout the British Isles.

Hurricane Maria has left a trail of destruction in the Caribbean after making landfall on 18 September 2017.

In anticipation of flooding induced by heavy rainfall from Hurricane Irma, JBA Risk Management® has created a preliminary flood event footprint showing areas that are at risk of flooding.

Following Hurricane Harvey (now a tropical storm), JBA has developed preliminary event footprint data and a short report describing the event to date and the modelling work carried out to develop the footprint.

Four days of intensive heavy rain last week brought record water levels and flooding to North Queensland, with The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) declaring a catastrophe on Friday 9 March for areas affected.

A slow-moving low pressure weather system caused intense and prolonged rainfall over Louisiana and southwest Mississippi in mid-August 2016. Record-breaking river flows were observed and the severe flooding that followed resulted in damage to tens of thousands of homes.

Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic have taken the brunt of the June 2013 flooding, with Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Switzerland badly affected as well.

Throughout the last ten days of November 2012 alone, the North East Midlands and South West of England experienced above the average rainfall expected for the entire month.

Millions of homes and businesses were damaged by post-tropical storm Sandy as it made landfall on the US east coast after sweeping through the Caribbean.