West Coast Winter Storm Could Hit $600M

A catastrophe modeling firm said that damage from the West Coast winter storm that struck three northwestern states over the weekend could reach $600 million in insured losses.

Boston-based catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide said the losses would primarily be in California. The storm struck Oregon, Washington and northern reaches of California.

AIR said the estimate reflects losses to property and contents; direct business interruption; and additional living expenses for residential, mobile home, commercial and auto exposures. They do not include crop losses.

The storm flooded towns, downed power lines and dropped heavy amounts of snow throughout the region over the weekend. AIR said the Sierra Mountains near Lake Tahoe were hardest hit with 11 feet of snow falling in just 72 hours. Sustained winds were recorded on Friday at 110 mph--the equivalent of a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale--with gusts up to 163 mph.

According to Peter Dailey, director of research in atmospheric science at AIR Worldwide, "The storm was unlike classic Pacific Northwest winter storms, which tend to concentrate damaging winds along the coasts of Washington and Oregon. The track of this large system was fairly unusual in that some of the strongest winds and heaviest snows were over the northern half of California."

In a statement yesterday California's Pacific Gas & Electric said about 44,000 customers were without electricity out of 2.4 million who lost power when the storms struck over the weekend. The outages extend into central California.

Another round of storms is expected to hit again over this weekend, but AIR said the event is likely to be both less intense and further north over Washington and Oregon.

Yesterday, the Jersey City, N.J.-based Insurance Services Office Inc.'s Property Claim Services said it had designated property damage in California, Oregon and Washington a catastrophe. However, flood damage in Nevada caused by the storm did not meet the criteria.

PCS defines a catastrophe as an event causing more than $25 million in insured losses and affecting a significant number of policyholders and insurers.