Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide has revised its industry insured loss estimates for Hurricane Irene’s impact in the Bahamas to between $200 million and $400 million (previously $300 million to $700 million).
However, AIR also indicated that its “loss estimates for other countries in the Caribbean remain unchanged as do the estimates for losses from Irene in the United States. With the new estimates for the Bahamas, AIR now estimates industry insured losses for all impacted Caribbean countries at between $400 million and $800 million. AIR’s estimate of insured losses in the United States from Irene remains unchanged at between $3 billion and $6 billion.”
The revision for the Bahamas is “based on a refinement of information about insurance penetration (also known as ‘take-up rates’) obtained from local experts during AIR’s recent damage survey and a reanalysis of detailed exposure data provided by several companies that together represent a significant portion of the market,” AIR explained. It also noted that the loss estimates “pertain to all insured properties in the Bahamas, and not just to properties insured by Bahamian insurers.
