Clément Bargain and AFP, edited by Juliette Moreau Alvarez 8:18 p.m., November 21, 2022

A massive blow for insurers: the damage from the drought will cost them between 1.9 and 2.8 billion euros, above their initial estimates, between 1.6 and 2.4 billion euros.

This year, the "clay shrinkage-swelling" phenomenon affected and cracked many buildings.

The consequences of drought episodes will be very expensive for insurance for this year 2022. According to their federation, the damage to buildings should be between 1.9 billion and 2.8 billion.

This is well above the estimates, which rather evoked 1.6 to 2.4 billion.

Many houses are weakened, affected by the phenomenon known as "shrinkage-swelling of clay" (RGA): in periods of drought, the ground shrinks and on the contrary, it swells during rainy episodes.

This causes ground movements, houses to move and walls to crack.

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A greater drought than that of 2003?

Unless it is at the bottom of the range, this summer's drought should therefore exceed that of 2003, with its 2.12 billion euros in losses recorded, a record since the creation of the "Natural disasters" regime in 1982. This estimate only includes damage located in municipalities whose state of natural disaster will be recognized, and which will then be considered as consecutive to the drought.

It does not take into account crop damage, which will be covered by specific insurance.

In France, around 54% of single-family homes are located in areas with medium or high exposure to RGA.

And 3.3 million houses, or about 16% of the total, are located in high risk areas.

According to a study by the federation published in 2021, the drought in France cost 14 billion euros between 1989 and 2019 and is expected to cost around 43 billion between 2020 and 2050.

“We are going to have hotter and hotter summers”

This phenomenon continues to grow according to Thierry Paris, president of the association Cat Nat Wannehain Sinistrés des Hauts-de-France.

"You know, on the national territory, there are about more than 10 million houses which are built on clay soils", notes the president.

"With this global warming, we are going to have increasingly hot summers. We can very well perhaps see fine cracks today not acting because we believe that it is not ultimately very important. And then end up with very large cracks within a year or two."

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A necessity, therefore, to get closer to your town hall if you notice any cracks, as this could be compensated.

For this, it is imperative that a natural disaster decree be declared in the municipality and that the experts conclude that there is a direct cause.

Very long procedures that can take several months.

For the damage this summer.

For example, the very first compensation will only arrive in June 2023.