Hurricane bills could top £11bn
THE global insurance bill for hurricanes Ivan, Frances and Charley could top £11bn. The cost of Hurricane Ivan alone could be as high as £3.8bn.
Although the full extent of the damage will not be known for some time, Risk Management Solutions' Hemant Shah reckons insurers will not have to pay out more for Ivan than for Charley, which cost £3.8bn.
Frances cost as much as £3.3bn. Shah added that US insurers can cope with losses of £28bn based on current capitalisations. That figure could be tested as the hurricane season still has several weeks to go.
Lloyd's of London is expected to give its own estimates for Charley today.
Ivan, one of the strongest Atlantic storms on record, headed for Cuba on Monday after slamming Grenada, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Ivan has killed 65 people in its trek through the Caribbean.
The Saffir-Simpson scale is used to measure hurricane intensity. A tropical storm becomes a Category 1 hurricane when wind speeds reach 74mph. A top-level category 5 hurricane has winds greater than 155mph.
