Insurers face £50 billion bill from Hurricane Ian

Insurance companies could face bills of up to £50 billion in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, which caused devestation across Florida and the Carolinas last week.

The industry projection calculated by risk modeling firm Verisk includes estimated wind, storm surge, and inland flood losses resulting from Ian’s landfalls in both Florida and South Carolina.

However, the estimate range, the lower end of which was £37.5 billion, does not include elements such as losses to the National Flood Insurance Program and any potential impacts of litigation or social inflation that could add an extra £3.5 billion to the total.

The death toll from Hurricane Ian climbed past 80 on Sunday as embattled residents grappled with a recovery expected to cost tens of billions of dollars, and some officials faced criticism over their response to the storm.

Around 628,285 homes and businesses are thought to be still without power in Florida early on Monday after the storm crashed across the state last week.

About 1% of the total industry loss will come from the impacts of Ian’s South Carolina landfall, Verisk said.

On Friday, US property data and analytics company CoreLogic put insured losses for Florida as a result of Hurricane Ian between £25 billion and £42 billion, in what could be the costliest storm for the state since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Recovery is expected to be slow and difficult due to inflation, high interest rates, and labour and materials costs.