Less than a month after Hurricane Ian, a large and highly destructive Category Four Atlantic storm which devastated large parts of Florida, estimates of its impact are rising rapidly.

Initial forecasts put the cost of the storm at between $20 billion and $30 billion, but once the full extent of the damage to Fort Myers was appraised estimates soared to between $50 billion and $65 billion.

The Financial Times called the hurricane ‘a wake-up call’ for the insurance industry with US risk modelling company RMS estimating the loss to private insurers at between $53 billion and $74 billion.

Rival risk modelling firm Karen Clark & Co says the privately insured loss will be close to $63 billion although the total economic damage will be ‘well over $100 billion’, even higher than the losses caused by Hurricane Katrina.

So far, the only European insurer to break cover is Swiss Re (SREN:SWX) which has reported storm losses of $1.3 billion.

The UK insurers most exposed to the catastrophe market are Lancashire (LRE), which took a big hit last year on Hurricane Ida, and Hiscox (HSX), which suffered big losses on Hurricane Michael in 2018.

So far neither firm has commented on Hurricane Ian but Lancashire reports on its third-quarter on 3 November and Hiscox is also due to issue a trading update early next month.

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