U.S. property-casualty insurers sustained a record $56.8 billion in insured property losses from 24 catastrophic events last year–more than double the previous high of $27.3 billion, when a "grand slam" of four major hurricanes hit in 2004.
Last year, five hurricanes–Katrina, Wilma, Rita, Ophelia and Dennis–accounted for $52.7 billion, or nearly 93 percent of 2005′s insured losses, affecting nine states, according to preliminary estimates from the Property Claims Services unit of the Insurance Services Office.
In addition to Katrina's individual event record of $38.1 billion in insured losses, PCS said the figures for the other storms were: Wilma, $8.4 billion; Rita, $5 billion; Dennis, $1.2 billion; and Ophelia $35 million.
PCS data shows that policyholders in 39 states filed more than four million personal and commercial property and auto claims. Five states accounted for over 80 percent of those claims and almost half of the dollar losses: Louisiana, $27.2 billion; Mississippi, $12.2 billion; Florida, $9.9 billion; Texas $2.9 billion; and Alabama, $1.5 billion.
Catastrophic activity in the fourth quarter was also unusual, with Tropical Storm Zeta developing in late December–well beyond the official Nov. 30 end of the hurricane season. Five fourth-quarter events triggered $8.9 billion in insured losses–the costliest fourth quarter on record in the past 10 years. Wilma's $8.4 billion loss produced the lion's share of the quarter's steep tally.
Policyholders filed an estimated 1.1 million claims for the quarter. The previous record for fourth-quarter catastrophe losses in the past decade was $2.6 billion in 2003, driven by two Southern California wildland fires.
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