Based on reports by property and casualty insurers to Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation, the total number of insurance claims filed following Hurricane Irma to date is 496,532 – worth an estimated $3.1 billion.
The state’s insurance regulator revealed the numbers yesterday, which included claims to private companies that underwrite flood coverage. However, the numbers do not include the roughly 17,000 claims (as of Thursday) filed in the state to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Of the tallied claims, 428,269 were for residential properties and 18,239 for commercial properties.
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Florida Association of Insurance Agents president and CEO Jeff Grady believes the inflow of Irma-related claims has peaked and he would be surprised if damage totals hit the much higher levels projected by catastrophe modeling firms such as AIR Worldwide and CoreLogic.
“It seems the initial damage estimates might have been high based on the lack of structural damage in many parts of the state,” Grady told
Sun Sentinel.
Grady explained that most of the total claims tallied by the state will likely not result in payouts because they will not exceed their hurricane deductibles, which is usually equal to 2%-5% of their insured value.
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Sun Sentinel reported that only 46,060 claims have been closed so far – 17,784 of those claims were closed with no payments.
The largest number of claims was filed in Miami-Dade County – 55,012, followed by Orange County with 44,696 claims, and Broward with 38,836 claims.
The most heavily-impacted community when comparing claims as a percentage of population is Monroe County, with 15.3 claims for every 100 residents. It was followed by Rural Highlands County with 10.2 claims per 100 residents and Seminole County with 8.5 claims per 100 residents.
Florida International University’s College of Business released a report yesterday that projected total wind loss in Florida reaching $19.4 billion. Insurers, however, will only have to pay out $6.3 billion of the total, since most of the damage will not exceed hurricane deductibles.
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