Early quarterly reports from insurers indicating heavy catastrophe losses have heralded ISO's statement on first-quarter catastrophe losses. The company's PCS unit confirmed that the first quarter of 2008 was the worst for catastrophe losses in almost 10 years.

PCS said that U.S. property/casualty insurers are expected to pay homeowners and businesses an estimated $3.35 billion for first-quarter property losses resulting from nine catastrophes. Both figures are the highest reported since before 1999. In all, more than 615,000 claims from 22 states were filed between January and the end of March.

PCS said that seven catastrophe events were caused by severe weather — damaging wind, large hail, flooding, and tornadoes — and one was caused by a winter storm. Another loss that occurred at a Georgia sugar refinery was deemed a catastrophic loss due to workers' compensation estimates, but those figures are currently undetermined and were not factored into the figures released by ISO.

The five states with the largest insured property losses were Georgia ($610 million), Tennessee ($535 million), California ($360 million), Texas ($270 million), and Arkansas ($223 million). PCS said that the costliest event of the quarter, at $955 million, was caused by an outbreak of severe weather that spread from Texas to Ohio in early February. That catastrophe caused roughly 120,000 losses.

Claims in personal lines produced 56 percent of the total loss for the quarter, or nearly $1.9 billion. The commercial property loss was 31 percent of the total, or just more than $1 billion. Losses involving insured vehicles totaled almost $500 million, or 13 percent of the total loss.

Special Reports /

First-Quarter Catastrophe Claims Hit Insurers Hard

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