Nationwide: $400M Charley Losses

NU Online News Service, Aug. 23, 3:40 p.m. EDT?The insured damage toll from Hurricane Charley has risen to $1.7 billion as the state's third largest provider?Nationwide?reported on Saturday that its losses from the storm are approaching the $400 million mark.[@@]

Overall, the Columbus, Ohio-based Nationwide estimated it would receive more than 50,000 claims related to the storm that swept across Florida and the Carolinas on Aug. 13.

A total of $377 million of those damages are expected to come from Florida policyholders, according to Nationwide.

A spokesman for Bloomington, Ill.-based State Farm, the leading homeowner's writer in the state, said the company will not be putting out dollar estimates of loss this week.

The Insurance Information Institute has estimated insured losses from Hurricane Charley will end up at around $7.4 billion.

Other companies continued to report loss estimates over the weekend.

Cincinnati-based specialty insurer Midland Co. reported a $4 million loss. But it noted that strong underwriting results before the storm should mitigate the hurricane's impact on profits.

Midland subsidiary American Modern Insurance Group is one of the nation's most prominent insurers of mobile homes, which suffered greatly, particularly in the area where the storm made landfall on the state's southwest coast near Fort Myers. It accounts for about 96 percent of its parent's consolidated revenue.

Those relatively mild losses could be attributed to the fact that mobile homes are not often insured, as they are often paid for in cash.

"While insurance for mobile homes is widely available in the state, preliminary figures indicate that many mobile home owners are not insured for these properties," said Don Griffin of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. "Mobile home hurricane losses are not expected to reduce the availability or increase the cost of insurance of these properties."

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Nationwide: $400M Charley Losses

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