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Travelers releases Harvey loss estimate

Posted On: Sep. 12, 2017 7:21 AM CST

Travelers releases Harvey loss estimate

Travelers Cos. Inc. expects its losses from Hurricane Harvey to be between $375 million and $750 million before taxes, the insurer said late Monday.

The estimate includes reinsurance recoveries, a Travelers statement said. The after-tax loss to the insurer will be between $245 million and $490 million, the statement said.

The insurer has suspended its share repurchase program while it assesses its losses from hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the statement said.

Harvey hit the Texas coastline south of Houston as a Category 4 hurricane late last month. It quickly weakened to a tropical storm but stalled over the Houston area, causing major flooding with a record rainfall of around 52 inches before heading into Louisiana.

As flood losses are excluded from most homeowners policies, much of the economic loss from the storm is uninsured.

On Saturday, catastrophe modeling firm Risk Management Solutions Inc. said insured losses from the storm will be between $25 billion to $35 billion, with an upper bound of $40 billion. The estimate includes gross losses to the National Flood Insurance Program of $7 billion to $10 billion.