$6 to $10 billion damage

clipped from: www.nola.com

The California risk management consulting firm Eqecat Inc. estimated Monday that Hurricane Gustav would generate $6 billion to $10 billion of insurance claims, primarily in Louisiana, after making landfall.

The California insurance consulting firm Risk Management Solutions Inc. issued even lower projections Monday evening of $3 billion to $7 billion in insured losses on land from Gustav.

Meanwhile, the Boston consulting firm AIR was working on downgrading its initial estimates issued Sunday of anticipated losses of $11 billion.

That means Gustav is no Hurricane Katrina, which generated an estimated $43 billion in damage in 2007 dollars, but it still could be a big storm. Two Category Two hurricanes have made the insurance industry's top ten most expensive hurricane list: Hurricane Georges, which hit Mississippi and Louisiana in 1998, and Hurricane Frances, which hit Florida in 2004.

State Farm, the state's largest residential insurer, had 12 mobile catastrophe vehicles ranging in size from a van to truck trailer, 33 satellites, global positioning system devices and laptop computers with air-cards to adjust claims quickly.

Allstate, the state's second largest insurer of homes, said it had stationed 15 mobile response units around the area, with satellite phones, wireless data access, generators, bottled water and teddy bears for kids.