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BOSTON—Hurricane Irene caused an estimated $500 million to $1.1 billion in insured losses in the Caribbean, catastrophe modeler AIR Worldwide Corp. said Friday.
AIR said the estimate includes wind and precipitation-induced flood damage to insured onshore residential, commercial and industrial properties—and their contents—automobiles and business interruption losses in the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Turks & Caicos and other Caribbean territories.
Bahamas hit hard
Boston-based AIR said the Bahamas will account for more than 60% of the total, with an estimated insured loss ranging from $300 million to $700 million.
“Because Irene tracked west of several islands—including Abaco Island, which contains the third-highest insured property value after New Providence and Grand Bahama—it is likely that losses in the Bahamas from Hurricane Irene will be higher than those from Hurricane Floyd,” Scott Stransky, an AIR scientist, said in a statement. “Irene's large size meant that almost all of the Bahamas was subject to strong winds for more than a day—a factor taken into consideration when modeling losses.”
Hurricane Irene is expected to reach the U.S. East Coast by Saturday afternoon, with landfall most likely in North Carolina's Outer Banks. As of Friday, a hurricane warning extended from the entire North Carolina coast north to Sandy Hook, N.J.
BOSTON—Don, the fourth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, is not expected to result in “significant insured losses” after having made landfall in south Texas late last week, according to Boston-based catastrophe modeler AIR Worldwide Corp.