RMS puts hurricane Irene insured loss estimate at $2.5 billion to $5.5 billion

Risk Management Solutions (RMS) have published an estimate of insured losses resulting from the recent hurricane Irene. Their estimate only includes wind and surge impacts covering both the U.S. and Caribbean, so doesn’t include any inland flooding from heavy rainfall or any National Flood Insurance Program losses from surge and rain.

RMS puts U.S. insured losses at between $2 billion to $4.5 billion and insured losses in the Caribbean at $0.5 billion to $1 billion. Most of the Caribbean loss comes from the Bahamas islands.

“Our estimate range reflects some uncertainty, including the definition of hurricane versus non-hurricane deductibles for individual states, and the uncertainty surrounding losses from damage caused by tropical storm winds,” said Michael Kistler, director of Model Solutions at RMS. “During Irene, a large swath of tropical-force and low hurricane-force winds swept across a large area of exposure causing widespread, low-levels of damage.”

RMS’ loss estimate is broadly in-line with estimates from other analysts and risk modelling firms.

As ever, keep up to speed with the 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season here.