U.S. property-casualty insurers will likely pay around $11.5billion to homeowners and businesses due to third-quarter propertylosses from catastrophes, ISO's Property Claim Services Unit (PCS)said. In total, the catastrophes generated 1.7 million claims, PCSestimated.

The quarter saw a total of 11 catastrophes affecting 22 states,PCS said. The $11.5 billion represents the fourth-largest insuredproperty loss in a third quarter since 1998.

The figure does not come close to the $48.4 billion in similarlosses for 2005, and is also well behind the $23.7 billion from2004, but the 11-catastrophe total tops both of those years, andevery other year going back to 1998, in terms of frequency,according to PCS numbers.

Of the 11 catastrophes, PCS said six were caused by severeweather, such as wind, hail, tornadoes and flooding, while tropicalstorm systems were responsible for the other five catastrophes.

The 22 affected states ranged from New Mexico to North Dakota toVirginia, PCS said. Texas, Louisiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Illinoisexperienced the greatest losses.

Texas was hit the hardest with an estimated $6.4 billion inproperty losses.

"Although the current estimates of insured property damage arenot record-setting, the frequency of events continues a trend thathas occurred all year: a high number of events coupled withsignificant insured losses," Gary Kerney, assistant vice president,PCS, said in a statement.

He added, "These figures show that tropical systems can reachwell inland and inflict extensive property damage--a fact that isoften overlooked."

PCS declared 36 catastrophes though the first three quarters of2008, totaling an estimated $22.1 billion of insured propertydamage and approximately 3.7 million claims.

Of those claims, PCS said approximately 2.5 million personallines claims accounted for $14.5 billion of property damage, while356,000 commercial lines claims cost an estimated $5.4 billion and840,000 vehicle claims cost insurers $2.2 billion.