Hurricane Arthur, the first tropical cyclone of the AtlanticHurricane Season and the first hurricane to make U.S. landfallsince Sandy in 2012, is not expected to produce losses exceeding$250 million from wind and coastal flooding, RMS says.

In a blog post Verisk's website, Ted Gregory, manager of Verisk'sProperty Claim Services, set the bar for losses even lower, sayingthe storm did not cause enough damage to be labeled acatastrophe.

“As of July 7, 2014, PCS has determined that the storm has notcaused enough damage in the United States to warrant PCScatastrophe designation (PCS designates an event as a catastrophewhen it reaches $25 million in claims and affects a significantnumber of policyholders and insurers),” Gregory writes.

RMS notes that on July 3, Arthur made landfall along ShacklefordBanks, between Cape Lookout and Beaufort at the southern end ofNorth Carolina's Outer Banks as a Category 2 hurricane. Thehurricane weakened to a Category 1, tracked offshore fromMassachusetts on July 4, then made a second landfall as apost-tropical storm in Nova Scotia, Canada.

In North Carolina, says RMS, most losses were from wind andcoastal flooding. “The storm impacted mostly residentialproperties. Residential insurance policies typically provide coverfor surge-driven flood losses,” RMS notes.

The firms says in Massachusetts and Nova Scotia, damage ismainly the result of localized inland flooding from therainfall.

Brian Owens, senior director, business solutions at RMS,comments, “What is unusual about Arthur, particularly for this timeof year, is that it rapidly deepened to become a Category 2hurricane. It's also rare for hurricanes to form in early July,which climatologically is the quietest time of the hurricaneseason.”