Property and casualty insurers operating in Florida say they are just beginning the massive effort of assessing damage left by Ian’s assault through southwestern and Central Florida on Wednesday and Thursday, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported. Accurate damage estimates might not be available for days, after teams of adjusters fan out and assign dollar amounts to the wreckage they inspect. Early estimates by catastrophe risk modelers project that Ian’s insured losses in Florida — excluding claims to the National Flood Insurance Program — will be in the $30 billion to $50 billion range, according to Reinsurance News and an investor-focused website artemis.bm. Fitch Ratings estimated insured losses between $25 billion and $40 billion. Meanwhile, stock prices for publicly traded insurers and reinsurers exposed to losses in Florida were stable on Thursday, suggesting the investment community believes that the cost of rebuilding what Ian damaged won’t break the industry. Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation will begin collecting daily claims and loss totals from all insurers beginning Friday. After hurricanes, the office typically posts running tallies on its website. State Farm Florida, one of the state’s three largest insurers, received 4,300 claims by 3:30 p.m. Thursday, mostly from Lee, Charlotte, Orange, Collier, and Polk counties, spokeswoman Heather Paul said.
