Category 5 Felix Seen as Unprecedented

Hurricane Felix crashed through Nicaragua and Honduras as the year's second Category 5 storm, and weather experts said that makes 2007 an unusual hurricane season.

Risk Management Solutions in Newark, Calif. estimated insured losses from the storm would be less than $200 million. Despite being a maximum-strength storm, the small population affected combined with relative poverty and low insurance penetration in the area means the economic loss will be low, though the humanitarian cost will be high, the firm said.

Claire Souch, senior director of model management at RMS, noted in an earlier statement that, “This is only the fourth year since 1950 that we've had more than one Category 5 storm, and it is unprecedented for the first two hurricanes of the season to reach this level of intensity.”

Category 5 storms involve winds exceeding 155 miles per hour, and storm surge higher than 18 feet.

“Since 1900, only four years have recorded more than a single Category 5 hurricane. Only one year–2005–has seen more than two,” said Milan Simic, managing director of AIR Worldwide Ltd., in AIR's London office. “That year, four Category 5 storms formed in the North Atlantic–Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma.”

Hurricane Dean in mid-August tore through the Caribbean and Mexico, causing insured losses put at $2 billion by some estimates.

RMS said a high-pressure system currently positioned over Florida and the Gulf of Mexico is directing the hurricanes to the Western Caribbean, where the hottest Atlantic sea surface temperatures intensify storms passing over the area.

Robert Muir Wood, chief research officer at RMS, commented: “The location of the high-pressure system is currently protecting the U.S., as storm tracks are being kept further south. However, we are not yet halfway through the hurricane season and stable weather tends to break down during September, so there is no guarantee that the protection will remain in place.”

Felix hit the Nicaraguan coast about 8 a.m. with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph, before moving northward to Honduras, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

According to AIR, past hurricanes hitting Honduras have caused fatal mudslide activity with massive loss of life. In 1974, 8,000 deaths were attributed to Hurricane Fifi there, while 7,000 fatalities were blamed on Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

Meanwhile, in the Eastern Pacific, Hurricane Henriette loomed southeast of the busy Cabo San Lucas, a resort town in Mexico. Henriette's winds were clocked at 75 mph–just reaching a Category 1 level.

Henriette was expected to move in towards the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula.

This article originally appeared in The National Underwriter P&C. For the complete article, please click here.

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