Initial forecasts plotted a far more destructive path for the storm than was actually the case.
Following predictions of apocalyptic Hurricane Irma insurance losses, it appears as though the storm may be costly, but nowhere near the worst case scenario.
It’s still far too early for specific totals, but recent figures suggest they may be as low as $10 billion.
Randy Binner, an insurance analyst, explained that while initial projections for Hurricane Irma insurance losses were as high as $100 billion, this has now been reduced to between $10 billion and $30 billion. Moreover, the reality seems to be leaning toward the lower end of that scale.
It should be pointed out that these estimates have to do with the privately insured losses. “It’s for private insurance losses in Florida and also in the Carribean, which will be notable in this event,” said Binner. “We are not estimating losses from the National Flood Program, which will be significant.”
New Hurricane Irma insurance losses updates caused stock futures to spike on Monday.
As the storm damage turned out to be far less than had been feared, stock futures aimed skyward with the start of the business week. By that point, the storm had greatly lost strength and was swirling its way along a northwestern path at around 105 miles per hour.
This represented a considerable recovery following last week’s plummeting insurance company shares. Share prices have continued their recovery since the start of the week.
As the storm continues to peter itself out, insurance companies will be able to send in their teams and their drones in order to obtain a more accurate losses total. Insurers have been gearing up to move in as soon as possible in order to assist their policyholders and shorten the length of the claims process.
It is not yet clear whether or not the ongoing claims inspections and adjusting following Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Louisiana will have any impact on the length of time it will take to process the Hurricane Irma claims. Many insurers sent resources to those states to areas that were absolutely devastated by that storm. The American Hurricane Irma insurance losses are predicted to be only a fraction of that previous storm.
