Humberto Losses Lowered To $200M

An insurance modeling firm said it estimates insured wind losses from Hurricane Humberto, which stormed into Texas last week, should not exceed $200 million, the lowest estimate given so far.

Boston-based AIR Worldwide Corp. said its projection covers insured wind losses to property, contents, business interruption and additional living expenses for onshore properties.

Humberto on Sept. 13 increased from a tropical storm to one with hurricane-level winds in 12 hours off the coast of Texas. The Category 1 hurricane swept in just north of Galveston, Texas, and continued into Louisiana with heavy rains that caused flooding and power outages for more than 100,000 customers.

AIR, a subsidiary of Jersey City, N.J.-based Insurance Services Office Inc., said part of the storm hit the Port Arthur, Texas, area, an important refining center about 16 miles southeast of Beaumont. While there was little physical damage, the storm did knock out power to a couple of oil refineries.

"If Humberto had another 12-24 hours over water, it could have been a major event that would have hit without enough time to evacuate those at risk," said Peter Dailey, director of atmospheric science at AIR.

Today, a spokesman for Oakland, Calif.-based Eqecat said the experts there feel insured losses will not exceed $500 million.

Last week, Torrance, Calif.-based Risk Management Solutions came out with the same $500 million figure.

Humberto is the third hurricane and the first to hit the United States mainland for this 2007 Atlantic season.

Ingrid, the ninth named storm of this season in the Atlantic, which formed over the weekend, has dissipated.

In the Pacific, AIR said Typhoon Nari struck South Korea on Sunday with sustained winds at 72 mph and gusts up to 112 mph.

Peter Sousounis, senior research scientist at AIR Worldwide, said in a statement that the storm destroyed nearly 200 buildings and cut power to 50,000 households, disrupting transportation.

Another typhoon, Wipha, is forming off the coast of China and is expected to hit South Korea later this week with winds possibly in excess of 130 mph, AIR said.

RMS today issued a bulletin noting that Wipha could strike some densely populated centers in China as a Category 3 or 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale. It is expected to hit Shanghai on Wednesday afternoon.

In 2005 Typhoon Matsa, a Category 1 storm, hit the same vicinity causing $2.19 billion in economic damage and only $85 million in insured losses.

Domenico del Re, Asia Pacific model manager at RMS, noted that insurance penetration remains low, but some of the larger cities have seen increased penetration with 25 percent of property insurance in Shanghai written by foreign companies.