Reuters: Hurricane Gustav could trigger insurance claims of up to $10 billion, according to early computer-modeled estimates of damage from the storm, but at least one analyst thinks the final tab could be lower. Gustav, which made landfall southwest of New Orleans on Monday, was much less powerful when it struck than earlier feared. It also skirted the city, which sustained heavy damage three years ago from Hurricane Katrina. "While a major weather-event, the storm did not have the destructive impact widely forecasted," said Citigroup analyst Joshua Shanker, in a research note. "Estimates are largely unavailable or premature, in our opinion ... we would not be surprised to learn that losses are even lower, as these largely related to modeled projections (which have come down from a prior projection of $33 billion) rather than analysis of storm damage," Shanker added.
EQECAT Inc, which helps insurers model catastrophe risk, said on Monday it estimated Gustav's insured losses at $6 billion to $10 billion. AIR Worldwide Corp., another provider of technology to model disaster risk, estimated the storm had caused up to $4.5 billion in losses on land and up to another $4.4 billion to offshore oil and gas installations.
Risk Management Solutions (RMS), the third major modeler of catastrophe risk, put insured losses at $4 billion to $10 billion -- $3 billion to $7 billion of which is for commercial and residential claims, excluding coverage from a government flood insurance program, and the rest from damage or production outages for the oil and gas industry in the Gulf....
Hurricane Gustav after landfall, September 1, 2008. NASA
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