Frances Said to Cause $4.4B in Damages

[Hyperstorm]

Frances Said to Cause $4.4B in Damages

Published September 24. 2004 9:34AM

The Associated Press


Homeowners and businesses were expected to file insurance claims worth an estimated $4.4 billion for property damage caused by this month's Hurricane Frances, according to an actuarial firm's preliminary estimate.

Florida accounted for $4.1 billion of the insured property losses from the storm that hit the state's Treasure Coast Sept. 5, according to New Jersey-based ISO. The estimate released Thursday does not include flood and uninsured damage. Total damage is typically double the insured figure.

U.S. insurers are expected to process more than 552,000 claims for Frances, with more than 500,000 in Florida, ISO said.

This season's powerful storms are expected to be more costly than the most expensive hurricane ever, 1992's Andrew. That storm caused $15.5 billion in insured damages when it devastated southern Miami-Dade County.

Hurricane Charley caused an estimated $6.8 billion in insured damages when it raked across the Florida Peninsula Aug. 13 with 145-mph winds.

Early estimates put insured damages for last week's Hurricane Ivan at $3 billion to $10 billion. It struck the Gulf Coast in Florida and Alabama Sept. 16.

Frances dumped more than a foot of rain in some parts of Florida when it struck with top sustained winds of 105 mph. It hit the Panhandle as a weakened tropical storm before moving up the East Coast.

[Josephine96]

$4.4 billion huh.. I would have guessed more..

[Hyperstorm]

That's quite a bit considering it was only a category 2 hurricane. If it had been a category 4, that figure could have easily been 4-5 times greater...

[OtherHD]

4.4 Billion insured damages equates to roughtly 9 Billion total.

[Hyperstorm]

4.4 Billion insured damages equates to roughtly 9 Billion total.

That's exactly right. They're talking about insured losses...

[JtSmarts]

2004 has been quite a historical year in terms of damage.
This is what the costliest storms list should look like after the end of this season

5. Hugo 7 Billion
4. Frances 9 Billion
3. Charley 14 Billion
2. Ivan 14-20 Billion
1. Andrew 26 Billion

If Jeanne is as bad as some think she may be it is possible 4 of the the top five costliest storms in history will be from 2004

[Anonymous]

Im almost certain that Ivan would have higher damage figures than Charley....

[JtSmarts]

Have the damage costs for Ivan been narrowed down yet?

[OtherHD]

No, but I think it's safe to say that based on comparisons between Frances and Ivan, that ivan is well over $3 billion in insured damage. Probably closer to $10 billion when you consider all the inland damage and his reincarnation.

[wabbitoid]

Ivan will top Charley, no doubt. That 10B figure is just insured, so Ivan will be like 20, maybe a bit less. I think 16B is a reasonable number.

What will Jeanne do, tho? This year is at something like 49B (and they aren't counting anything from Gaston, etc?) and we have another one on hand.

Basically, we've doubled Andrew and we're still counting.