EQE Investigates Japan Earthquake.

Business & News Editors

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 6, 2000

A team of EQE engineers from our Tokyo office are currently investigating damage caused by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake (according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, and 6.7 reported by the United States Geological Survey) that shook southwestern Japan at approximately 1:30 p.m. (local time) on Friday, October 6, 2000. This team, led by Mr. Steve Eder, was dispatched within one hour of the earthquake and is presently in the epicentral region. The focus of their investigation will be on industrial and commercial facilities, damage to the infrastructure, and survey of damage to all types of structures.

The earthquake was centered six miles beneath western Tottori state near the industrialized city of Yonago, which is 315 miles southwest of Tokyo. Tottori is mostly a rural area with a population of more than 600,000. The earthquake is reported to have caused a 20 kilometer rupture on a strike-slip fault (probably similar to California's San Andreas Fault and Kobe's fault that caused the destructive 1995 earthquake) diagonally across western Tottori Prefecture. Very high accelerations, greater than 0.80g, were recorded. The largest modern earthquake in the Tottori region is the 1943 magnitude 7.2 event.

EQE engineers report that several dozen buildings have collapsed. There is widespread damage with reports of several power outages and failures, burst water lines, landslides, and temporary closure of Yonago Airport due to settlement of the runway, probably due to liquefaction of the subsoils. The Shimane Nuclear Power Plant, owned by Chugoku Electric in Matsue City, is about 35 kilometers from the epicenter.

Given the location and magnitude of the earthquake, the parametric earthquake bonds which were analyzed by EQECAT (www.eqecat.com) in support of their issuers (Parametric Re, Concentric Ltd., and Circle Maihama Ltd.) are not affected. In addition, the EQECAT risk assessments performed for two additional Cat Bonds in Japan (Namazu Re and Atlas Re) are also believed not to be impacted because of the substantial distance from the epicenter to the major insurance exposures in the Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka areas.

EQE International (www.eqe.com) is a leading risk management and engineering consulting firm, providing services to a diverse range of business sectors worldwide. EQECAT, Inc. provides comprehensive and technically advanced catastrophe management software and consulting services to insurance, reinsurance and financial services firms concerned with worldwide property risk exposure.