Initial reports indicate that Hurricane Emily has done minimal damage in Texas, despite hitting the Gulf Coast with 125 mph winds this morning.
Dr. Claire Souch, catastrophe response manager for Risk Management Solutions in London, said the center of the storm struck Mexico 75 miles south of the Texas border at round 7:30 a.m. EDT. She said there were some tropical strength storms that would reach into the Texas region, but overall, there probably would be no major damage.
"It could have been different if it had been a bigger storm," she said.
The compact nature of the storm would keep damage to a minimum in Mexico, where she said the Category 3 storm, on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale, hit a sparsely populated region of the country.
The storm is expected to weaken quickly as it moves into the mountainous region of Mexico, and would not pose much of a threat to more highly populated cities inland.
A high pressure system over the U.S. this week kept Emily from moving northward into Texas, Ms. Souch noted.
"We were pretty lucky," she said.
Emily's strike earlier in the week over Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, where there is a significant tourism industry, appears to be limited to primarily cosmetic damage to hotels, said Ms. Souch.
She reported that Mexican oil platforms on the western side of the peninsula were unaffected. They will begin operation again tomorrow, she said.
"We were very fortunate, really, including the Caribbean. It was a small but intense hurricane," she observed.
There were four deaths reported in Jamaica related to Emily, but no other fatalities.
From the insurance sector, a spokesman for Lloyd's issued a statement by e-mail that said, "While it is still too early to say definitively how much damage Emily left in her wake, it looks like there will be minimal impact to Lloyd's syndicates."
Meanwhile, the industry is still working to put together damage figures from Hurricane Dennis. The Insurance Information Services, based in Jersey City, N.J., said it should have some numbers later this week.
One Hurricane Dennis target, the Thunder Horse oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, has been righted, according to BP, the principal owner of the platform.
The structure, which sits 150 miles southeast of New Orleans, was found to be listing by an estimated 20 degrees after the storm passed through last week.
BP said the platform is still under development and is not ready to begin pumping. The company said it self-insures such facilities.
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