Hurricane Dennis caused an estimated $947 million in damages, according to Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation, and forecasters now say the likelihood is even greater for more hurricanes.
Even as forecasters in London and with the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in Silver Springs, Md., revised their predictions tropical storm Harvey became the eighth named storm of the season and this morning was moving off the coast of Bermuda with 65 mile-per-hour winds.
The Florida OIR said that so far 46,394 claims have been made with insurers paying out $47 million in damages.
More than 75 percent of the reported claims were from Santa Rosa, Escambia and Okaloosa counties in the western panhandle, although claims were reported in every county except Union.
The hurricane made landfall in Pensacola on July 10. Dennis killed 44 people in Haiti, 16 in Cuba, one in Jamaica, seven in Florida and one in Mississippi.
Dennis was the fourth named storm of the 2005 season and the first hurricane, with this season marking the earliest time there were four such storms.
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration said it now sees this season likely to yield 18 to 21 tropical storms. In May NOAA had predicted 12 to 15 storms with seven to nine becoming hurricanes.
It now sees nine to 11 becoming hurricanes, including five to seven major hurricanes," the NOAA said. That figure includes Dennis.
David Johnson, director of the NOAA National Weather Service, said "this may well be one of the most active Atlantic hurricane seasons on record, and will be the ninth above-normal hurricane season in the last 11 years."
NOAA meteorologist Gerry Bell said atmospheric and oceanic conditions that favor an active hurricane season are now in place. "Warmer than normal sea-surface temperatures and low wind shear are among the culprits behind the stronger and more numerous storms," he said.
Other forecasters agree.
Mark Saunders, head of seasonal forecasting and meteorological hazards at the Benfield Hazard Research Center, said that sea surface temperatures in the tropical North Atlantic are now expected to be six degrees warmer than normal.
Temperature, he said, was among the numerous factors that led the center to recently increase its forecast for Atlantic hurricane activity in 2005 by 20 percent.
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