Hurricane Charley Costs Insurers Up To 10 Billion Dollars, Agency

WASHINGTON, Aug 16 (AFP) - Hurricane Charley, the worst US storm in more than a decade, will cost insurers up to 10 billion dollars, a top catastrophe modelling agency said Monday.
Adding in uninsured losses, the expenses could double.
"Our estimates now are in the range of six to 10 billion dollars for insured losses," said AIR Worldwide spokesman Mike Gannon.
"We don't model total losses but generally what we have seen in history is that total losses are approximately double the insured losses."
The storm, the worst since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, killed at least 16 people, wrecked thousands of homes, left more than one million people without power, blocked roads and tore through airports, flipping over planes.
Most of the insurance losses were incurred in a swathe stretching from Fort Myers to Orlando.
"It is clearly the largest one since Hurricane Andrew," Gannon said.
Losses were far more significant than those for Hurricane Isabel, which hit the eastern states last September, he said.
AIR is a catastrophe modelling company, which uses sophisticated computer programs to help insurance companies calculate losses from disasters such as hurricanes.