| Summary: | In dealing with extreme economic exposures we normally distinguish between natural catastrophes and man-made disasters. Natural catastrophes refer to abrupt events caused by natural hazards, such as windstorm, flood, drought, earthquake, landslides, avalanches, wildfires, etc., that inflict significant economic and human devastation throughout a geographical region. Man-made disasters, in turn, can be categorised as unintended events, caused by accidents, failures, crashes, explosions, fire, etc., and willful events, often referred to as civil unrest and terrorist acts. Until recently, willful events and specifically terrorist acts constituted a relatively modest share of the total catastrophe losses but suddenly turned into a sizeable loss potential with the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, ..
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