{"id":5200,"date":"2026-06-26T15:21:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T13:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.continuitaly.it\/?p=5200"},"modified":"2026-06-29T17:12:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T15:12:46","slug":"floods-europe-2024-business-continuity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.continuitaly.it\/en\/2026\/06\/26\/floods-europe-2024-business-continuity\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2024 Floods in Central Europe: When a Climate Event Becomes a Resilience Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Abstract<\/em><\/p>\n

The floods that struck Central Europe in 2024 are not only one of the most severe climate events of recent years, but also a key case study for those working in the field of organizational resilience. In addition to the direct damage, the event highlighted the vulnerability of supply chains and critical infrastructure, as well as the growing protection gap<\/em> between economic losses and insurance coverage. In this in-depth analysis, we examine what actually happened and what lessons risk managers, business continuity managers, and property risk engineers can draw from it to prepare organizations for future climate scenarios. <\/p>\n

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In September 2024, Central Europe was hit by one of the worst floods in recent decades. Storm Boris<\/strong>, a low-pressure system that remained nearly stationary for several days, dumped on Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary the amount of rain that normally falls over the course of several months. Entire areas were submerged, thousands of people were evacuated, critical infrastructure was damaged, and numerous businesses were forced to suspend operations. <\/p>\n

The event resulted in dozens of casualties and economic losses estimated in the tens of billions of euros, while insured losses were estimated at approximately 2\u20133 billion euros, confirming once again the existence of a significant protection gap<\/strong>\u2014that is, the difference between the losses actually incurred by the economy and those actually covered by insurance policies.<\/p>\n

For those involved in business continuity, however, the most important lesson does not concern the extent of the material damage: it concerns the way in which a single weather event managed to spread its effects throughout the entire European economic system.<\/p>\n

When the problem isn’t your plant<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many organizations did not suffer any direct damage to their buildings. Yet they experienced delivery delays, shortages of raw materials, rail service disruptions, highway closures, power outages, and difficulties with employee commuting. <\/p>\n

In other words, the crisis unfolded along the supply chain and shared infrastructure far more than within individual production sites. This represents one of the key changes introduced by Climate Risk: it is no longer necessary for our facility to be directly affected by an extreme event. It is sufficient for one of the nodes on which our ability to operate depends to be affected. <\/p>\n

The Limitations of the Traditional View<\/strong><\/p>\n

For many years, corporate risk assessment has treated natural events as local risks.<\/p>\n