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MISSION BEACH, Australia—Damage from Tropical Cyclone Yasi is expected to result in insured losses of more than $540 million Australian ($536.2 million), catastrophe modeling firm EQECAT Inc. said Thursday.
Economic losses are expected to range from $2 billion to $5 billion, the Oakland, Calif.-based modeling firm said.
Yasi made landfall as a Category 4 cyclone Thursday just north of Mission Beach, Australia, with a wind speed of 177 mph.
Insured losses from Yasi are expected to exceed those from Cyclone Larry, EQECAT said in a statement.
Cyclone Larry, which struck Queensland in March 2006, caused $540 million Australian in insured damage, according to the Insurance Council of Australia.
Yasi is a “much broader storm, affecting a much larger populace and an area roughly five times the area impacted by Larry,” EQECAT said in the statement. “Yasi’s radius to hurricane force winds was approximately 80 nautical miles compared to Larry’s radius of 15 nautical miles.”
The cyclone was the latest weather-related damage to Queensland, which was hit late last year and early this year by flooding.
BRISBANE, Australia (Bloomberg)—The Queensland floods may cost insurers and reinsurers worldwide as much as $6 billion in what might be Australia's costliest disaster in history.