RMS puts Hurricane Dorian US insured losses in $500m-$1.5bn range, total losses in $4bn to $8.5bn range

Hurricane Dorian will cost insurance losses of between $500 million and $1.5 billion in the US, much less than some had estimated.

That’s according to risk modelling and analytics firm RMS, which estimates that total event insured losses from Dorian to the US, Canada and The Caribbean will be between $4 billion and $8.5 billion.

Jeff Waters, senior product manager, RMS North Atlantic Hurricane Models, said: “While Dorian caused material damage in several states, the overall impact to the U.S. could have been much worse had the storm taken a different track.

“We were fortunate that the majority of Dorian’s damaging winds and storm surge remained offshore as it tracked along the US coastline, before weakening, and eventually making landfall in North Carolina.”

This loss estimate for the US reflects property damage and business interruption to residential, commercial, industrial, and automobile lines of business. Insured losses due to post-event loss amplification and precipitation-induced inland flooding are not expected to contribute significantly to overall US insured losses.

Insured losses will constitute a fraction of the total economic losses, particularly in the Caribbean, as it has a lower rate of insurance take-up than the US, said RMS.

As the fourth named storm of the 2019 North Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Dorian was the first major hurricane of the season. It impacted several Caribbean countries and territories, most notably the Bahamas. Dorian made US landfall on Friday, September 6.

Over the weekend, storm Humberto strengthened into a hurricane late Sunday after narrowly missing the Bahamas. The storm is currently far off the coast of Florida and is expected to slowly move north and approach Bermuda in the coming days.

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