Losses from last week's killer storm that wreaked havoc onOregon and Washington have still not been assembled, but they areexpected to meet the estimates of heavy damage.

Brad Weekly, regional director for the N.W. Insurance Council,said the major problem from the storm was a huge number of downedtrees throughout the region.

He said the storm, with wind gusts that exceeded 100 mph, cameafter 10 straight days of heavy rain that had loosened the treesroot systems, making them more susceptible to toppling over.

He noted Oregon was hit as hard as Washington by the storm, butbecause there is greater population density in cities like Seattle,the number of people affected is much worse there.

“This is as bad as anyone can remember,” he said, adding thatestimated losses of $500 million are probably not too far off themark.

Because the region is not used to catastrophe situations, theassociation has been inundated with questions from the media andconsumers about their coverage, he said. Many, unhappily, arediscovering the limits of their insurance coverage for waterdamage, loss of food and housing relocation.

One complaint the association is not hearing is about slowclaims adjusting. In part, he noted, this could be because somepolicyholders have not made it back into their homes to call inclaims. But carriers also assembled a sizeable number of adjustersto come into the catastrophe regions and begin work after thestorms had passed.

Kenton Brine, Northwest regional manager for Property CasualtyInsurers Association of America, said the association is stilltrying to pull together claims numbers from members, and hopes tohave something by the end of this week.

“It's everyone's hope to have some kind of estimate [soon],” hesaid.

Yesterday, catastrophe storm modeler AIR Worldwide Corporationcame out with an estimate that insured losses from the storm wouldamount to $500 million.

The storm has left thousands still without electricity, thoughthe original numbers of close to one million between Washington andOregon is down considerably.