Katrina Called Most Destructive U.S. Storm

WASHINGTON - Hurricane Katrina is likely to stand as the most destructive single storm in American history, according to new estimates that put insured property losses between $40 billion and $60 billion — several times the toll of Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

The estimates, produced by risk-modeling firms that serve the insurance industry, count only insured damage. Total economic losses — including ruined uninsured homes, lost oil production, flooded infrastructure and weeks of stalled commerce — could reach $200 billion, analysts say.

"There has never been an event like this in the history of the insurance industry," said a vice president at one modeling firm. "Andrew was a wind event. Katrina was a wind event, a storm surge and a flood, spread across 90,000 square miles."

Even measured in lives, the storm ranks among the worst U.S. disasters. With the death toll still climbing past 600 across four states, Katrina has already passed every hurricane since the 1928 storm that killed an estimated 2,500 around Lake Okeechobee, Fla.

The 1900 Galveston hurricane, which killed at least 8,000, remains the nation's deadliest natural disaster. Unlike that storm, Katrina's toll includes hundreds who died in flooding days after landfall — a fact fueling the bitter argument over the government's response.

Insurers say the share of claims paid so far is small because adjusters cannot yet reach thousands of properties. Companies have dispatched what the industry calls the largest catastrophe response ever assembled, including mobile claim centers in parking lots across the Gulf.

The estimates do not count the federal flood insurance program, which covers most of the residential water damage and is expected to borrow tens of billions from the Treasury — deepening a deficit debate already inflamed by the cost of the Iraq war.

Researchers note that coastal development means new records are nearly inevitable. "We keep putting more wealth in harm's way," one climatologist said. "Katrina will not be the last record-setter."