U.S. property/casualty insurers received another reprieve fromMother Nature in 2007, according to catastrophe loss figuresrecently released by the Insurance Services Office's Property ClaimServices Unit.

Final figures for 2007 indicate that there were just 23catastrophes — an event costing $25 million or more in insuredproperty losses — which PCS says is the seventh lowest frequency inthe last 10 years. In terms of dollar figures, those 23catastrophes amounted to $6.5 billion in losses, the eighth lowestamount of losses in the last decade.

Most of the catastrophes (17) were due to severe weather events,including wind, hail, tornadoes, and flooding. Five were caused bywinter storms, and one was due to a wildfire. The costliest events?Severe weather damage that caused $1.35 billion from Texas toMaine, and the 2007 Southern California wildfire in San Diego thatcaused $1.1 billion in losses.

In terms of the number of claims filed, PCS said that insurerspaid 1.18 million claims for damage in 41 states. More than 721,000personal lines claims accounted for $4.4 billion, while 144,000commercial lines claims cost an estimated $1.3 billion. Vehicleclaims totaled 315,000 and cost insurers an estimated $800million.

“For the second year in a row, the U.S. dodged a devastatinghurricane,” said Gary Kerney, assistant vice president for PCS, ina statement. “With the exception of Hurricane Humberto, which madelandfall in southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana in September,no other hurricane made landfall on U.S. territory in 2007.However, catastrophes continue to occur and cause insured propertydamage that may not adversely affect the financial condition ofmost insurers, but does cause hardship to hundreds of thousands ofpolicyholders.”

PCS said that California experienced the highest dollar amountof claims among the list of 41 states that had insured losses fromcatastrophes. The other heavily affected states included:

State Loss ($)

California $1.23 billion

Minnesota $747 million

Texas $677 million

Georgia $320 million

Illinois $272 million

Oklahoma $270 million

Kansas $262 million

Missouri $223 million

New York $202 million

Colorado $200 million

Alabama $200 million

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