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Hurricane Zeta losses could approach $4.4 billion

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hurricane Zeta

Insured losses to onshore properties from Hurricane Zeta range from around $1.5 billion to close to $4.4 billion, according to latest estimates Monday from several catastrophe risk modeling companies.

Boston-based catastrophe modeler Karen Clark & Co. said in a statement the insured loss from the late October storm will be close to $4.4 billion, which includes $4.3 billion wind and storm surge losses in the U.S. and $80 million in wind losses in Mexico.

This estimate includes privately insured wind and storm surge damage to residential, commercial and industrial properties and autos, KCC said in the statement. It does not include National Flood Insurance Program losses or losses to offshore assets, nor any potential impacts on losses due to COVID-19, KCC said.

In another estimate, AIR Worldwide, part of Verisk Analytics Inc., said insured Zeta losses will range from $1.5 billion to $3.5 billion. AIR’s estimate includes losses to onshore residential, commercial and industrial properties and autos for their building, contents and time element coverage.

Despite Hurricane Zeta moving directly over New Orleans, the levees protected the city from storm surge, AIR said in a statement. Inundation in Mississippi and Alabama was confined to coastal areas, with Mississippi’s coast experiencing the largest storm surge.

Also Monday, data and analytics firm CoreLogic said insured wind losses for residential and commercial properties in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are estimated to be between $2.2 billion and $3.5 billion.

Insured storm surge losses are estimated to add another $300 million to $500 million to the total, CoreLogic said.

CoreLogic’s analysis includes residential and commercial properties, including contents and business interruption, but not broader economic loss from the storm.

“With one month to go, this hurricane season has been incredibly destructive due to the consistent cadence of storms and their too-similar landfall paths. While southwestern Louisiana was largely spared from Hurricane Zeta, New Orleans fell directly in the storm’s quick-moving path, Curtis McDonald, meteorologist and senior product manager at CoreLogic, said in a statement.

The hurricane made landfall on Oct. 28 near Cocodrie, Louisiana, about 80 miles south of New Orleans as a high-end Category 2 storm, AIR said It then moved quickly northeastward and tracked directly over New Orleans before moving through Mississippi and Alabama, where it weakened to a tropical storm.

Zeta was the 27th named storm of the season – tying the record for number of named storms in the Atlantic set in 2005 – and the 11th to make landfall in the U.S., according to AIR.