2004 Sees Record Payouts For US Insurers - $18.8 Billion For FL Hurricanes

[hatrack]

NEW YORK - "Unprecedented hurricane activity helped make 2004 the costliest year ever for US insurers as they paid out $27.3 billion, a survey released Wednesday by a leading industry adviser said.

While there were 22 catastrophic events last year, five hurricanes that made landfall in the United States along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coasts accounted for 80 percent of the insured losses, according to Insurance Services Office (ISO), a Jersey City, New Jersey, company that tracks insurers. Last year, ISO said, insurers paid out more than twice the amount paid out in 2003, and more than 2001's $26.5 billion which included losses related to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Last year, the average catastrophe cost $1.26 billion, twice that for the average catastrophe in other years in the last decade, except 2001. ISO defines a catastrophe as an event in a defined region that causes $25 million or more in insured property losses, affecting a significant number of property and casualty policyholders and insurers.

Florida bore the brunt of 2004's hurricane damage where losses totaled $18.8 billion. In that state alone, 1.63 million claims were filed, according to ISO."

EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/29448/story.htm

[Nihil]

1. Oh goodie ...

> While there were 22 catastrophic events last year, five hurricanes
> that made landfall in the United States along the Gulf of Mexico and
> Atlantic coasts accounted for 80 percent of the insured losses, ...

Damn, who would ever guess that a hurricane will make landfall on the
coast ... no wonder that so many people were caught by surprise.

> Last year, the average catastrophe cost $1.26 billion, twice that for
> the average catastrophe in other years in the last decade, except
> 2001. ISO defines a catastrophe as an event in a defined region that
> causes $25 million or more in insured property losses, affecting a
> significant number of property and casualty policyholders and
> insurers.

But at least they paid the money out, allowing more cretins to build
in totally unsuitable locations, more unsuspecting (gullible) buyers
to fork out their money for said properties and more helpless people
to subsidise this idiocy through their increased insurance premiums.

I have problems understanding the stupidity of my own countrymen who
insist in building on flood plains, on "abandoned" river beds and in
low-lying coastal areas. I suppose that in your country they would
be the morons who keep going back to the same places that are hit
every goddamned year by tropical storms and hurricanes.

"Gee honey, looks like there was another hurricane in the hurricane
season this year ... who wudda guessed that would happen?"

[Boomer]

2. It's not an isolated stupidity

Millions of people live within view of Mt. Vesuvius or in other areas that have experienced periodic catastrophic destruction. But least in those cases you can argue that two thousand year cycles breed an easily understood complacency.

In the US, however, our memories tend to run much shorter and any event that happened more than a few decades ago is considered ancient history and no longer of any relevance.

But I do wonder how Floridians are going to react to repeated pummeling as this newest cycle of hurricane activity intersects with globally warmed sea waters. It's going to be a VERY bumpy ride.

[ChemEng]

5. Good post!

Before air conditioning was invented, and people built vacation homes in Florida, huricane losses were very small. Never ceases to amaze me that when people build where nature is unpredictable, they act as if nature (or global warming) is the culprit, not their own actions.

Reminds me of people building homes on the California coast, and having the homes slide into the ocean during violent storms. What were they thinking?

[phantom power]

3. Any year now, I predict that insurance companies will be forced

to raise hurricane-insurance premiums to the point where more and more people just won't be able to afford that insurance, and then I expect that we'll begin to see people avoid building in those locations.

I'd be interested if any coastal-dwellers are seeing this yet. I figured that last year's hurricane extravaganza might cause 2005 premiums to rise.

[One_Life_To_Give]

4. Any truth to the 20yr hiatus of FL Hurricanes

Back in the summer there was a news item that didn't stick around. Claiming that historically Florida had been struck much more frequently than in the previous 20 yrs. The implication was that the pattern may have shifted back and that the 2004 hurricane season would be "typical" of of the next several years to decades.
Is there any truth to this?

Thanks