THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 7, 1996 TAG: 9609070429
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BLOOMBERG BUSINESS NEWS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: 42 lines
Hurricane Fran wreaked $625 million in damage to insured property in four states, according to an insurance industry estimate.
The preliminary study is based on a computer-generated program examining insured property in the region hit by the storm.
``We're hearing that this isn't going to be among the very worst U.S. catastrophes, but that doesn't mean it didn't cause major damage,'' said Jeanne Salvatore of the Insurance Information Institute, a New York-based trade group that distributed the estimate.
Fran slammed into the North Carolina coast Thursday night, knocking out power and flooding sections of North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., the largest U.S. home and auto insurer, released a statement saying that ``initial indications are that this storm will not rival Hurricane Hugo in terms of State Farm property insurance claims.''
Hurricane Hugo struck the Carolinas in 1989 and resulted in $455 million in damage claims for Bloomington, Illinois-based State Farm.
The worst U.S. catastrophe for State Farm and the insurance industry was Hurricane Andrew, which led to $3.7 billion in claims for the insurer in Florida and Louisiana in August 1992 - and $16.5 billion in damage for all insurers.
The Hurricane Fran estimate was produced by Applied Insurance Research Inc. of Boston. Computer-generated loss estimates tend to be low because they cover only initial damage and don't take into account potential weather-related construction delays.
The official estimate will be made by the Property Claim Services Division of the American Insurance Services Group, an insurance trade group that surveys insurers and visits damage sites.
The Fran estimate doesn't include damage to uninsured property or from flood damage, which is paid for by the national flood insurance program.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE FRAN STORM DAMAGE by CNB