KCC: Insurers May Take $18B Hit From Hurricane Ida

Insurers are bracing for a hit of about $18 billion from Hurricane Ida in the United States and the Caribbean, catastrophe modeling company Karen Clark & Co (KCC) said on Wednesday.

The number, closer to the lower end of the initial estimates given by insurance analysts while the storm was still raging earlier this week, is the first from one of the industry’s major risk-modeling experts.

KCC said $40 million worth of the insured loss would be in the Caribbean and the rest from wind and storm surge losses in the United States.

Hurricane Ida made landfall in the United States on Sunday as a Category 4 storm, after sweeping ashore from the Gulf of Mexico, flooding wide areas under heavy surf and torrential rains.

Insurance experts had earlier in the week estimated $15 billion to $30 billion in claims from Hurricane Ida, but cautioned the figure could be higher, in part because of pandemic pricing that has pushed up the cost of lumber and labor to rebuild.