The London market has had to deal with the impact of three serious hurricanes this year and must be wondering what it can do. Well, help is at hand. In Business Week, William Bailey from Oakton, Virginia, offers up some rather interesting advice on how hurricanes can be prevented in the first place.

He writes: "Dump several thousand tons of cryogenic liquid (for example liquid oxygen, at -183ÞC, or even colder liquid nitrogen or liquid hydrogen) in advance of an approaching hurricane. The US Air Force has some 500 KC-135 tankers, each with a payload of some 35,000kg. A dozen tankers converted to carry and drop cryogenic fluid, each flying say, five missions, could drop 1,800 tons in front of a hurricane, significantly lowering the surface temperature of the water in its path."

Reinsurers everywhere must be asking themselves: why didn't we think of that?

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