GENEVA (AP) — A leading Swiss firm says insurance claims paid out because of natural catastrophes and man-made disasters in 2013 totaled $45 billion globally, much of it due to floods in Europe and Typhoon Haiyan in Asia.

Zurich-based Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd., known as Swiss Re, says the tab covered by insurance companies represents only about a third of the $140 billion in economic losses, not to mention 26,000 lives lost, from 308 catastrophes worldwide last year.

Swiss Re said Wednesday the single biggest humanitarian catastrophe was Typhoon Haiyan, which left 7,500 people dead or missing and caused $12.5 billion in damage to the Philippines and Vietnam.

The most expensive natural disaster, it said, was the $16.5 billion in flood damage across Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

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