Insured losses from Tropical Cyclone Florence in the US are expected to reach billions of dollars due to low flood insurance penetration, according to Impact Forecasting’s latest monthly global catastrophe report.

The storm last month caused economic losses of about $US10 billion ($14.15 billion) and killed at least 53 people.

In Japan Cyclone Jebi caused billions of dollars in economic losses, with nearly 486,000 insurance claims filed. A quake on the island of Hokkaido prompted 12,279 insurance claims, according to the General Insurance Association of Japan.

China’s insurance industry has forecast insurance payouts of $US1 billion ($1.41 billion) after Super Typhoon Mangkhut, which also damaged 210,000 homes in the Philippines.

Total damage from the Sulawesi earthquake in Indonesia is expected to reach or exceed $US1 billion, and severe weather losses across the US and Canada will run into hundreds of millions of dollars.

Steve Bowen, Meteorologist with Aon Benfield subsidiary Impact, says September was the costliest month for natural disasters this year. Most losses related to Florence, Jebi and Mangkhut and the Sulawesi quake are likely uninsured, he says.