Insurers List Record $27.3 Billion ?04 CAT Loss
NU Online News Service, Feb. 9, 12:36 p.m. EST?U.S. property-casualty insurers, after 22 catastrophic events last year, paid a record $27.3 billion for insured property losses to homeowners and businesses, Property Claim Services estimated.[@@]
Insurance Services Office in Jersey City, N.J., the PCS parent, said the figure surpassed losses from 2001 that included the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.
Over 80 percent of the insured losses were from the five hurricanes that made landfall in the U.S. along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. ISO said the last time back-to-back hurricanes struck the U.S. was in 1999, the year of hurricanes Bret, Dennis, Floyd, Irene and Lenny.
Policyholders in 42 states and Puerto Rico filed nearly 3.35 million personal and commercial property and automobile claims, according to ISO.
Catastrophic activity was mild in the fourth quarter with insured losses of $450 million from three events. The quarter produced slightly more than 100,000 claims from eight states.
Fourth-quarter 2003 was the worst fourth quarter for insured losses?$2.64 billion, much of it stemming from the two Southern California forest fires, ISO said.
The firm said Florida suffered the highest insured losses at $18.8 billion, all from the four third-quarter hurricanes?Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne?followed by Alabama at $1.8 billion, Colorado and Pennsylvania each at $715 million, and Georgia at $660 million.
The four hurricanes, ISO said, produced a total of 2.23 million claims from policyholders in 16 states and Puerto Rico, with Florida topping the list with 1.63 million claims.
PCS found the cost of the average catastrophe in 2004 was $1.26 billion?twice that for other years in the past decade. That average was exceeded only once in the past 10 years?$1.33 billion in 2001, largely because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.
ISO's PCS unit defines a catastrophe as an event within a particular territory that causes $25 million or more in insured property losses and affects a significant number of property-casualty policyholders and insurers.
PCS estimates represent anticipated insured losses on an industrywide basis arising from catastrophes, reflecting the total insurance payment for personal and commercial property items, business interruption, and additional living expenses. The estimates exclude loss adjustment expenses.
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