New York – Hurricane Katrina, which walloped New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities, may result in insurance losses of up to $25 billion, according to reports today from two risk assessment firms.
AIR Worldwide Corp., a risk modeling firm based in Boston, said its revised estimate projects likely insured losses in a range of $17 billion to $25 billion. On Monday, the company said preliminary assessments suggested property and casualty losses in a range of $12 billion to $26 billion.
A similar assessment came from another firm, Risk Management Solutions of Newark, Calif., which projected insured losses from the hurricane of $10 billion to $25 billion.
That means Katrina could prove more costly than record-setting Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which caused some $15.5 billion in insured losses. Adjusted for inflation, Andrew’s cost would be nearly $21 billion today.
The figures do not cover property that isn’t insured, which could add millions to the total. They also don’t cover damage to oil operations offshore.
