Record Claims Possible For HurricaneClaudette

July 21–Hurricane Claudette, the killer storm that hitTexas, could be one of the costliest to hit the state, if earlyestimates hold true.

Preliminary loss estimates from the storm, which hit southernTexas on July 15 and left two people dead, are put at between $60to $80 million, according to the Insurance Information InstituteInc.

There are about 5,000 homeowner claims and 1,000 auto claimsreported so far, the New York City-based I.I.I. said last week.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced on July 18 that fivecounties–Calhoun,
Victoria, Jackson, Matagorda and Refugio–were declared disasterareas by President George W. Bush, making them eligible for federalaid. A disaster declaration is still pending for 10 other counties,the governor said in a statement.

Dave Dasgupta, a spokesperson for Jersey City, N.J.-basedInsurance Services Office Inc., said that ISO has declared thestorm a catastrophe, which means losses would run more than $25million. He said the association should have storm loss figures bysome time next week.

Claudette was forecast by the National Weather Service to be aCategory 1 hurricane, but may have turned out to be more powerfulthan predicted. The National Weather Service is analyzing data andmay upgrade the storm to a Category 2 storm, which means windspeeds were between 96 to 110 mph.

According to a report released by the Insurance Council ofTexas, Claudette could be one of the 15 costliest storms to hit thestate since 1950 in terms of actual dollars in insured losses. Ifestimates hold, Claudette would surpass Hurricane Allen, the 15thcostliest Texas storm, which hit the state in 1980 and cost $58million in insured losses.

The Councils report on the states costliest and deadliest stormssince 1950 was released before Claudette hit Texas.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property &Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, July 28, 2003.Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serialpublication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as anindependent work may be held by the author.