Irene Adds to a Bad Year for Insurance Industry

The United States has had its most expensive year for extreme weather - and now this.  While the expected catastrophe was averted this will have a huge affect on an overstretched insurance industry.

Add to that various earthquakes - such as those in Japan and in Christchurch.

Think it’s going to get any better?!

New York Times

 28 August 2011

The total damage inflicted by Hurricane Irene may reach $7 billion by the time the storm dissipates in the coming days, making one of the insurance industry’s worst years even tougher, according to an early estimate by the Kinetic Analysis Corporation in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Most of the loss will very likely come from property in New York and New Jersey, according to industry experts. Although Irene had diminished to a tropical storm by the time it reached New York early on Sunday, those two states have the most valuable coastal property on the Atlantic Coast.

At $7 billion in possible losses, Irene would be among the 10 costliest catastrophes in American history, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

For article GO HERE