Claims News Service, Oct. 24, 3:30 p.m. EDT -- In a pressrelease today, catastrophe risk modeling company AIR WorldwideCorporation estimated U.S. insured losses from Hurricane Wilma at$6 billion to $9 billion. Wilma strengthened overnight and madelandfall at 6:30 a.m. this morning at Cape Romano, Florida, as aCategory 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph.
As a Category 3 storm, Wilma is significantly less intense thanAugust's Hurricane Katrina, a strong Category 4 hurricane. Inaddition to Wilma's lower wind speeds and fast forward speed ofnear 23 mph, the decreased vulnerability of structures in Floridawill lead to insured losses well below those of Katrina.
"Our detailed analysis of claims data from the 2004 seasonshowed that Florida's stronger [building] codes led to less damagethan would normally be expected had the storms hit a morevulnerable area of the coast, as reflected in our model."
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