Hurricane Katrina should prove for insurers to be one of the costliest storms in US history, although though its late shift away from New Orleans may have kept losses from being even higher.
Storm modelers were today still estimating insured losses as high as $26 billion, though one cut its forecast to as low as $9 billion after Katrina hit into the Gulf Coast.
Although carryng winds of 140mph when it came ashore, Katrina had by then weakened slightly, leaving New Orleans on its western, less catastrophic side.
But damage was severe to catastrophic in much of Louisiana and Mississippi, including the latter's coastal tourist havens of Biloxi and Gulfport, and one of the levees protecting New Orleans, which sits below sea level, was breached.
Mississippi officials have suggested the death toll could yet reach 80.
Eqecat Inc. of Oakland, California, yesterday cut its forecast for insured losses to $9 billion, after earlier estimating as much as $30 billion. Thomas Larsen, Eqecat's senior vice president, said the storm's more eastward track "relieved some pressure" on New Orleans.
Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurer, has estimated total insured losses from Katrina at $15 billion to $20 billion, and estimated its own share at up to $488 million.
Reinsurers may pay a bigger share of claims than they did for the series of hurricanes in 2004 as Katrina is a single event, so insurers will pay one deductible before reinsurance starts, compared with four deductibles last year.