The earthquake that hit western France on June 16 will have an estimated total cost of between 200 and 350 million euros, the Caisse centrale de réassurance (CCR) said on Monday, announcing that it will cover at least half. “In the municipalities affected, many buildings are damaged from a structural point of view, with falling chimneys, the collapse of roofs, even walls”, details the CCR. This is particularly the case of La Laigne, Cram-Chabran, Courçon-d’Aunis or even Benon, in Charente-Maritime (17) but also of Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon, Saint-Hilaire-La-Palud or even Niort, in Deux-Sèvres (79), indicates the public reinsurer. In several municipalities, it is the religious buildings that have been the most affected, also notes the CCR.
The cost of this earthquake “is estimated between 200 and 350 million euros, of which at least 50% will be borne by CCR”, she estimates. It “will be reassessed gradually according to the post-seismic works, in progress”. Last Monday, the insurance expertise firm Saretec gave a first estimate, between 150 and 200 million euros, for more than 5,000 buildings affected, including several hundred severely.
With a magnitude of 5.3 to 5.8 according to the National Seismic Monitoring Network (Renass) and the French Central Seismological Bureau (BCSF), the violent tremor occurred on June 16 at 6:38 p.m. in the town of Cram- Chaban, halfway between La Rochelle and Niort, without causing any casualties. Thirty aftershocks were observed in the three days after the main earthquake, also indicates the CCR. This is the largest earthquake in this region for fifty years and a seismic shock recorded in Oléron in 1972.