Hurricane Matthew reported losses reach $454m in Florida

Insurance claims from hurricane Matthew reached $454 million by the end of last week, more than doubling over two days as claims were filed, according to an update from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.

The first update from the regulator showed that hurricane Matthew losses from claims filed had reached $218 million by the 12th October, but by the end of Friday 14th of October the figure had more than doubled to $454 million from 75,215 claims made.

Just 10% of those claims have been closed, with 4% or 3,158 claims paid, but the total estimate of losses attributable to claims reported as filed has reached $454 million.

There is an expectation that as much as 50% of the loss from hurricane Matthew could fall to reinsurance capital providers, which will include some ILS funds, collateralised covers and could also affect some reinsurance sidecars.

Volusia county leads the way with 22,244 of the claims occurring there, followed by Duval, Brevard, St Johns and Flagler.

Homeowners claims account for 55,213 of the total claims reported as filed by primary insurers in the state, with commercial property just 1,660.

Demonstrating the lack of private flood insurance cover only 84 claims have been filed for private flood cover, while 3,188 will come down to Federal flood insurance policies. Only 146 business interruption claims have so far been reported.

These figures are expected to rise further at the next update, providing the insurance and reinsurance industry with some visibility of the claims toll from hurricane Matthew building up. Data has currently not been published for other U.S. states.

With industry loss estimates ranging from $4 billion to perhaps as high as $8 billion it’s clear that Florida will take a significant proportion of this loss and so the claims volume is likely to grow.

Meanwhile the Bahamas is expecting an insurance industry loss of at least $400 million from hurricane Matthew, following over $1 billion of economic loss. As with U.S. claims, insurers in the Bahamas are expected to recover a significant proportion of this from their reinsurance carriers.

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Also read:

– 50% of mid-estimate $5bn Matthew loss to fall to reinsurance: JPM.

– AIR puts hurricane Matthew insured loss at up to $8.8bn.

– KCC puts hurricane Matthew insured losses at $7 billion.

– Matthew losses to largely fall within catastrophe budgets: Peel Hunt.

– Early Hurricane Matthew insured loss estimates suggest up to $6bn.