Francine insured losses close to $1.5B: KCC

Insured losses from Hurricane Francine will be close to $1.5 billion, according to a report Monday from Boston-based catastrophe modeler Karen Clark & Co. Inc.

The estimate includes the privately insured damage to residential, commercial, and industrial properties and automobiles, as well as business interruption.

It does not include boats, offshore properties, or National Flood Insurance Program losses, the KCC report said.

The storm became Hurricane Francine late on Sept. 10 and continued to strengthen, making landfall as a Category 2 hurricane with 100-mph maximum sustained winds around 5:30 p.m. CDT on Sept. 11.

Francine is the sixth hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana in the last five years, KCC said.

Francine weakened to a tropical storm by 10 p.m. CDT and became a tropical depression on the morning of Sept. 12 while moving northward into Mississippi, according to KCC.

In a separate report Monday, Moody’s Investors Service Inc. said it expects that primary insurers will retain most of the losses from Hurricane Francine.

“U.S. primary insurers have retained a higher proportion of catastrophe risk in recent years as reinsurers have raised pricing and attachment points and pulled back from providing aggregate reinsurance covers,” Moody’s said.

The top three commercial property insurers in Louisiana in 2023 were Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp.; Berkshire Hathaway Inc.; and Chubb Ltd., according to Moody’s data.