After hurricane Katrina left around 80% of New Orleans and surrounding areas underwater, leaving thousands of people homeless, and many more losing their lives, insurance companies are now counting the cost.
Hurricane Katrina is estimated to cost the insurance industry over £11 billion, making it the second most costly hurricane in history. The most expensive for the industry was Hurricane Andrew in 1992, when insurance claims reached over £12 billion according to an estimate by Swiss Re.
The company's' natural catastrophe claims for the year are estimated at over £500 million, including European storms in January, flooding in India and central Europe this summer, and July's Hurricane Dennis and Emily.
Our view
This is a huge disaster and our sympathy is with all those affected. From a financial point of view, £11bn is a huge amount of money but not compared to the amount the US has spent on Iraq.
Let us hope the storm now approaching Texas does not have the same impact.