NU Online News Service, Sept. 15, 10:00 a.m.EST

Allstate Corp. says it expects $735 million in August pretaxcatastrophe losses from eight events, including HurricaneIrene.

Hurricane Irene, which affected the East Coast at the endof August from South Carolina to Maine, cost Allstate an estimated$500 million, the company says in a statement.

Claims paid in in July and August total $865 million, Allstateadds.

Allstate Corp. posted more than $2.3 billion in catastrophelosses in the second quarter, driving a $620 million second-quarter loss. The corporation's combined ratio for thesecond quarter was more than 123.

Allstate's announcement of losses is a continuation of a newplan to release monthly and quarterly catastrophe losses when theyexceed $150 million, the Northbrook, Ill.-based company says.

Meanwhile, at a Barclays Capital conference in New Yorkyesterday, Hartford Financial Services Group says it expects pretaxcatastrophe losses for July and August of $150-to-$250 million.Hartford says losses of between $75 million and $175 million can beattributed to Hurricane Irene, reports Reuters.

Catastrophe modelers issued varied estimates of insuranceindustry insured losses from Hurricane Irene. Most recently,Risk Management Solutions says the storm could cost insurers$2-to-$4.5 billion in the U.S.

Modeler Eqecat says U.S. insured losses from Irene will fall between$1.5 billion and $2.8 billion. AIR Worldwide put the range of U.S. insured losses at $3-to-$6billion.

Insured losses from Hurricane Irene and other recent events willadd to $17.3 billion in insured losses in the U.S. as of June 30—a162 percent increase over insured losses during the first half oflast year.

To crack the list of top 10 costliest U.S. storms, Irene wouldneed to eclipse Hurricane Jeanne, which affected many of the samestates in 2004, causing about $4.15 billion (in 2009 dollars) ininsured losses.