Damage Costs Mount From Gustav

As Hurricane Ike loomed in the Gulf of Mexico, insurers and officials in Gulf Coast states were still tallying damage costs from Hurricane Gustav, which swept into Louisiana on Sept. 1.

Switzerland-based global reinsurer, Swiss Reinsurance Co. predicted that Gustav could cost the global insurance industry up to $8 billion. Days after the storm hit, catastrophe risk management company Risk Management Solutions said private insurers could face damages from Hurricane Gustav between $4 billion and $10 billion. That estimate included damage to the offshore petroleum industry and damage from wind and storm surge but not potential levee damage or from post-Gustav flooding from heavy rainfall.

Although New Orleans escaped the kind of devastation that Hurricane Katrina wrought in 2005, nearly the whole state of Louisiana was adversely affected by Gustav in some way. Baton Rouge, the state capitol, was hard hit with high winds and heavy rains. The Louisiana Department of Insurance estimates that some 3.1 million citizens, or about 73 percent of the population, suffered some sort of damage from Hurricane Gustav. In an early estimate, Insurance Commissioner James Donelon said insured property losses from Hurricane Gustav would be around $1.7 billion, according to the Associated Press. Donelon projected that figure from the losses reported by Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, which has 10 percent of the total market. As of Sept. 8, the department had not received loss figures from private insurance firms.

Associated Press reports contributed to this story.

Topics Catastrophe Louisiana Hurricane