“The storm, by its violence and its course over a densely inhabited area, will leave its mark on the minds and built heritage of the region for a long time,” said ECAP. With Le Locle, more than 3,300 buildings were damaged, some of which were almost completely destroyed. With “months of work”, this is the assessment that ECAP can draw from this July 24, with a few months of hindsight, by publishing its annual activity report. As of July 25, the institution had mentioned 4,000 to 5,000 buildings affected out of the 7,500 in the area crossed by what Météosuisse likened to a tornado.
Financial loss
In detail, nine of the buildings exceeded one million francs in damage. On average, the damage amounts to 40,000 francs per case, compared to 8,500 francs during the hail of June 21, 2021. Overall, elements of nature caused almost 4,000 losses in the canton of Neuchâtel.
Beyond that, the disasters of July 24 pushed ECAP into the red. The “historic” loss reached 24.15 million francs, compared to a profit of 893,000 francs in 2022, with a total of 127 million damages. “The reinsurance policy and intercantonal solidarity mechanisms fully played their role in 2023.”
A canton regularly affected
“For five years, the elements of nature have been regularly unleashed in the canton of Neuchâtel, putting a strain on employees and accounts,” reports ECAP, whose last loss dates back to 2013. Just remember the floods occurred in Val-de-Ruz in 2019 or in Cressier in 2021.
Faced with such damage, ECAP reacted in an “equally extraordinary” way. The Real Estate Insurance Chamber has thus released a special credit of one million francs to mitigate the consequences of the storm, three quarters of which will be devoted to the reforestation of urban areas in Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds.
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