NU Online News Service, Aug. 29, 2:01 p.m. EDT

Hurricane Irene, by itself, will not impact pricing in the property and casualty insurance industry, but it will add to a growing list of events that combine to put some pressure on the market.

As Hurricane Irene churned in the Atlantic Ocean as a Category 2 storm before making landfall, some experts speculated the storm could turn what has been a soft P&C market.

“This is not that event,” says Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute. “It was a far cry from what people had expected when Irene was approaching the coast as a Category 2.”

Nevertheless, insured losses from Hurricane Irene could be within the $3 billion to $4 billion range, Hartwig says, with additional losses being absorbed by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) since the hurricane turned into a flooding event.

Damage from flooding, including flooding generated by storm surge, is not covered by a standard homeowners’ or renters’ insurance policy, though there are some exceptions.

Flood damage to vehicles is covered if comprehensive coverage was purchased.

About 17 percent of homeowners nationwide carry flood insurance.

To crack the Top 10 list of costliest U.S hurricanes, Irene would have to eclipse $4.15 billion (in 2009 dollars) in losses caused by Jeanne in 2004.

Jon Hall, executive vice president at FM Global, says industry-wide losses are likely in the $2 billion to $8 billion range.

Tom Larsen, senior vice president at catastrophe-modeler Eqecat, says the firm is still assessing the total industry impact.

Eqecat says insured losses in North Carolina and South Carolina are expected to be in the $200 million to $400 million range.

Power outages are likely to play a large role in losses. Millions of people were affected by power outages. Tornadoes spawned as Irene moved up the East Coast could also account for a “large part of the losses,” Larsen adds.

“There is no normal to these types of events,” Larsen says. “They are all different and present different challenges to estimating losses.”

Insured losses from Hurricane Irene will add to $17.3 billion in insured losses in the U.S. as of June 30—a 162 percent increase over insured losses during the first half last year.

“Irene could put the total up between $22 billion and $23 billion,” Hartwig says. “About $16 billion was from the tornadoes earlier this year.”

As of June 30, this year had set a record with $55 billion in insured losses globally. That is more than four times the 10-year average.

As of midday Aug. 29, State Farm has taken more than 15,300 homeowners’ claims and 1,910 automobile insurance claims in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Washington D.C, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Claims include downed trees, siding and roofing materials blown off houses, and loss of refrigerated food.

“These numbers are still very premature and will increase as our policyholders make it back to their homes to assess damage,” says spokesman Jeff McCollum.

Farmers Insurance has set up a mobile claims unit in Norfolk, Va. Paul Quinn, assistant vice president of claims, says claims are trickling in by the dozens instead of the hundreds or thousands that could be expected after a hurricane bringing more wind than Irene.

Quinn also says Irene was “more of a rain and flood event—not the wind event we thought could come.”

Farmers has a large concentration of policyholders in Virginia. About 410 auto and home claims have come in.

Allstate says it has mobilized more than 1,000 catastrophe claims adjusters from South Carolina to Maine and deplyed 16 mobile claims centers to the hardest-hit locations.

Updated at 2:00 p.m. Aug. 29 to include more recent claims numbers from State Farm and information about Allstate's response.

Special Reports /

Irene Not a Market-Turner, But Adds to Tally of U.S. Insured Losses

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