NU Online News Service, Feb. 16, 2:14 p.m.EST

PartnerRe Ltd. said it is estimating 2011 first-quarter lossesfrom catastrophe activity in Australia to be between $80 millionand $110 million.

The events include January flooding in Queensland and Victoria,as well as losses from Tropical Cyclone Yasi, which made landfallon Feb. 3 as a Category 4 storm in North Queensland.

Pembroke, Bermuda-based PartnerRe, a global insurer andreinsurer, said the total net loss is expected to be “primarilyrecorded within the company’s Global (Non-U.S.) Property &Casualty and Catastrophe subsegments.

In its fourth-quarter and year-end earnings release, Hamilton,Bermuda-based Arch Capital Group said it expects its 2011 first-quarter losses from theJanuary flooding and Yasi to be between $30 million and $60million.

Hamilton, Bermuda-based XL Group said it expects 2011 first-quarter losses from theJanuary flooding to be between $75 million and $95 million.

Catastrophe modeler AIR Worldwide said its most recentindustry-wide loss estimate for the January flooding is $2.99billion to $5.98 billion. That estimate was issued on Jan. 13. Themost recent estimate for Yasi losses is between $354 million and$1.5 billion. This estimate is as of Feb. 3, AIR said.

Earlier this week, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) saidthe January flooding in Queensland has so far resulted in about43,755 claims, and the group estimated insured losses to be about $2billion.

ICA said the claims count has increased from earlier estimates as commercial and miningclaims come in.

ICA said insurers have already paid about $200 million topolicyholders in Queensland.

Meanwhile, ICA said flooding in Victoria State has generatednearly 6,000 claims so far and insured losses of about $67million.

Independent reinsurance brokerage firm Holborn said it expectslosses for reinsurers in the first quarter to eclipse $4 billion,with Yasi causing between $1.5 billion and $3 billion of thattotal.