According to Swiss Re, 2009 has been a calm year. - According to initial estimates from “Sigma's” next study, natural and technical disasters in 2009 are likely to have cost a total of $52 billion as opposed to $267 billion in 2008. Insurance costs rose to $24 billion. Insured damages remain below the average due to a calm hurricane season in the USA. In Europe, however, these damages were above average. In Europe, the total number of natural and technical disasters during the first seven months of 2009 is almost twice as high as the average in the last 20 years. Between January and July, five events alone caused insured damages worth more than $1 billion. The most expensive event was the winter storm, Klaus, which hit France and Spain last January and caused insured damages of €3.5 billion. In the USA, one winter storm and two tornadoes caused insured damages of almost $3.5 billion in total. In 2009, disasters left around 12,000 victims worldwide, as opposed to 240,000 in 2008. The number of fatalities in 2009 is one of the lowest for the last 20 years. Asia was the region most affected. (I.L./transl.fl)