Insured losses in the United States from Hurricane Ivan’s assault on the Gulf Coast could run from $2 billion to $7 billion, a risk assessment company said Thursday as it slightly reduced its estimate of the cost of the deadly storm.
Risk Management Solutions said maximum winds of 110 mph to 130 mph at landfall were lower than expected and the hurricane’s track limited the worst damage from storm surge to barrier islands southwest of Pensacola, Florida.
RMS, which markets catastrophe risk management products and services to insurers, reinsurers, trading firms and financial institutions, estimated Wednesday before Ivan made landfall that insured damages could range from $4 billion to $10 billion.
Ivan has also caused $1 billion to $2 billion in insured losses in its deadly rampage over the Caribbean, most of it in the Cayman Islands, an offshore finance center and British territory that was badly hit by the storm Sunday.
Ivan spared the low-lying city of New Orleans when it came ashore early Thursday. Pensacola, a city of 60,000 surrounded by a large urban sprawl, took the brunt of the storm. It killed 68 people in the Caribbean and at least seven in the United States.
Ivan came hot on the heels of two other hurricanes that battered Florida. Charley, which hit southwest Florida on Aug 13, and Frances, which came ashore on the Atlantic coast on Sept. 4, may have caused up to $11 billion in insured damages between them. REUTERS