Payout From Storms May Pass Andrew
Tuesday, September 21st, 2004 PropertyAbout one out of every five Florida homes has been damaged by a hurricane so far this year, according to the Insurance Information Institute. The insurance industry likely will pay out more than the $15 billion in insurance claims which resulted from Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the I.I.I. reported. The I.I.I. also expects the total number of claims will exceed one million, surpassing the 700,000 claims filed for Hurricane Andrew and setting a new record for the number of claims in such a short span of time. The I.I.I. stressed that while the insurance industry has sufficient financial resources to pay the claims, the historic one-two-three punch of Hurricanes Ivan, Frances and Charley will make the claims handling process in Florida more difficult “Ivan, Charley and Frances together do not pose a solvency-threatening event to the industry,” said Robert Hartwig, chief economist of the I.I.I. “However, the unprecedented challenges created by the multiple hurricanes understandably
