Typhoon Lekima is the deadliest and costliest storm of the 2019 Western Pacific typhoon season after landing as a 110 mph (175 kph) Category 2 storm in China's Zhejiang Province on 10 August , according to Aon, a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions.

Total economic losses in China were estimated to approach CNY72bn ($10bn).

Aon's latest edition of its monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report, which evaluates the impact of the natural disaster events that occurred worldwide during August 2019, notes that at least 71 people were killed or missing in China following Lekima’s heavy rains, flooding, and gusty winds that affected nine provincial regions. Two people were killed in Taiwan during the passage of Lekima.

A damage assessment by the Chinese government revealed at least 149,000 homes and 1.1m ha of cropland damaged or destroyed.

Mr Michal Lorinc, catastrophe analyst within Aon’s Impact Forecasting team, said, “The month of August further highlighted the severity of water-based impacts in populated areas. Typhoon Lekima’s torrential rains in China and continued seasonal monsoon rains across parts of Asia combined to cause more than $15bn in economic costs alone.

"The need to better understand the hydrological impacts in developed and emerging markets will become more important as vulnerabilities increase. Tools such as catastrophe modelling can help aid in developing new methods of hazard mapping and subsequent warning for future perils.”