Insured losses from Napa earthquake could reach $1B: Eqecat

(Bloomberg) An earthquake damaged building stands in Napa, California, on Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014. The strongest earthquake to hit northern California in 25 years rocked the state's wine-country region.

Sunday's magnitude-6.0 earthquake centered near Napa, California, may have caused between $500 million and $1 billion in insured losses, catastrophe modeling firm Eqecat Inc. said Monday.

Business interruption and contents losses, which are still being tallied, could drive insured losses over $1 billion, Oakland, California-based Eqecat said in a statement.

Losses to the Napa Valley's heralded wine industry, which has already begun its harvest, could also exacerbate insured losses, according to Eqecat. Residential losses account for one-quarter to one half of the loss estimate, the firm said.

The quake struck six miles southwest of Napa and was felt throughout the San Francisco Bay area. It was the largest quake to strike the region since the magnitude-6.9 event that hit Loma Prieta in 1989, Eqecat said in the statement.

There have been reports of structural damage to unreinforced masonry buildings and Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has reported about 10,000 households without power in Napa and surrounding towns, according to a statement from AIR Worldwide, a Boston-based catastrophe modeling firm.

No fatalities have been reported, but 89 injuries, three critical, were sustained, according to Eqecat.