Insured Losses Stand at $360 Million from Early December Winter Storm, Estimates ISO's Property Claim Services Unit

January 1, 2011 / 2 min read

JERSEY CITY, NJ, Dec. 19, 2002 — Insurers are expected to pay homeowners and businesses $360 million for insured-property losses from the winter storm on Dec. 4–5 that blanketed North Carolina and four other states with snow and ice, according to preliminary estimates by Insurance Services Office, Inc.'s (ISO) Property Claim Services (PCS) unit.

So far, insured losses in the quarter stand at $1.3 billion, making it the third-costliest fourth quarter since 1992. The costliest fourth quarter was in 1995, when insured damage totaled $2.63 billion — primarily because of Hurricane Opal, which alone cost $2.1 billion.

Insured losses are greatest in North Carolina at $230 million, followed by South Carolina at $60 million, New York at $40 million, Pennsylvania at $20 million and Virginia at $10 million. PCS anticipates insurers will receive more than 155,000 claims from residential and commercial policyholders.

ISO's PCS unit defines a catastrophe as an event within a particular territory that causes $25 million or more in insured property losses and affects a significant number of property and casualty policyholders and insurers.

PCS estimates represent anticipated insured loss on an industrywide basis arising from catastrophes, reflecting the total net insurance payment for personal and commercial property lines of insurance covering fixed property, personal property, vehicles, boats, related property items and business-interruption losses. The estimates exclude loss-adjustment expenses.

ISO is a leading source of information, products and services related to property and liability risk. For a broad spectrum of commercial and personal lines of insurance, ISO provides statistical, actuarial, underwriting and claims information and analyses; consulting and technical services; policy language; information about specific locations; fraud-identification tools; and data processing. In the United States and around the world, ISO serves insurers, reinsurers, agents, brokers, self-insureds, risk managers, insurance regulators and other government agencies.

Release: Immediate

Contacts:
Giuseppe Barone / Erica Helton
MWW Group (for ISO)
201-507-9500
gbarone@mww.com / ehelton@mww.com