Hurricane Irma insurance claims in Florida reach $4.6 billion

Hurricane Irma related insurance claims are estimated to have reached almost $4.6 billion in value, a near 20% rise since late September. Almost 25% of claims are now closed, with 14% having been paid out by insurers.

As hurricane Irma approached Florida the insurance and reinsurance industry had been expecting an enormous hit to property insurers, but the impact of Irma was lessened by a westerly shift in the path of the storm and the onshore winds at landfall being lower than anticipated.

But still the volume of claims coming in has been huge, with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation reporting almost 704,000 claims filed by 4.00pm local time on October 6th, with the total loss now estimated at just under $4.6 billion.

At 4pm local time on the 18th September the reported insurance claims figure stood at 335,000 claims filed, with 4.5% of claims closed and a total estimated cost of $1.955 billion.

Then, as at 11.25am local time on the 21st September, the number of claims filed rose to almost 500,000, with 9.3% closed and an estimated insured cost of $3.076 billion.

By the 26th September the numbers had risen again to 605,500 claims filed, with 24.6% closed and a total loss estimated at just under $3.9 billion.

Over 103,000 insurance claims have now been paid and the insurers responsible for these claims will in many cases have already received reinsurance monies to help them in helping their clients recovery from the hurricanes impacts.

Residential property claims, which make up the bulk at almost 600,000 claims filed, continue to be closed at the fastest rate, with 22% closed compared to just 15% of commercial property claims.

The commercial residential section are the slowest class of claims to be closed down, with just over 6% closed to-date.

The number of claims remaining open is growing though, as new claims are coming in faster than the old ones can be settled at this time. There are still 530,245 claims remaining open, suggesting a significant uplift in the insurance and ultimately reinsurance total property loss before hurricane Irma’s impacts are dealt with.