Irene losses already up to $1.1 billion

Hurricane Irene caused as much as $1.1 billion in insured losses in the Caribbean, catastrophe modelling company AIR World-wide said on Friday, with more expected to come as the storm heads for the US Northeast. While no one knows yet precisely where Irene will strike or how strong it will be at the time, it seemed certain as of Friday that Philadelphia, the New Jersey shore, New York City, Long Island, and broad swaths of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts were all going to be hit.
The insured losses for the region will range from $500 million to $1.1 billion, mostly from the Bahamas, said AIR, one of the three companies the insurance industry relies on to model the impact of both natural and man-made disasters. AIR had warned that Irene was likely to do more damage to the islands than 1999's Floyd, the last hurricane to strike them in such a direct way.