The United States property and casualty industry is expected topay homeowners and businesses an estimated $920 million for insuredproperty losses in the second quarter of 2005, according topreliminary estimates by Property Claim Services.

With four catastrophes in 25 states, this year's second-quartertally was the lowest in the past 10 years. Severe weather,including high winds, hail, tornadoes, and flooding, wasresponsible for all the insured damage in the quarter. Thecostliest event was a severe thunderstorm in early May thataffected 14 states, causing $305 million in insured propertydamage.

At $315 million, Texas topped the list of the five most severelyaffected states, followed by Nebraska at $105 million, Kansas at$85 million, Oklahoma at $65 million, and Colorado at $45million.

During the same period last year, insured losses totaled $2.3billion, compared with $5.1 billion in the second quarter of 2003.The record for second-quarter catastrophe losses, $6.2 billion,occurred in 2001. For the first half of this year, insured propertylosses from catastrophes stand at $3.05 billion, resulting from 12events in 37 states.