Additionally, Moody's expects higher-than-normal automobile-related losses due to extensive flooding, high losses stemming from power outages, and high losses in communities in mountainous areas impacted by the “unusual amounts of rain.”

Because of the unique nature of the storm, Moody's notes that early loss estimates may vary. Reinforcing this notion, catastrophe-modelers Eqecat and AIR Worldwide have released dissimilar estimates. Eqecat puts expected insured losses at $1.5 billion to $2.8 billion, while AIR estimates insured losses of between $3 billion and $6 billion.

“Reasonably precise estimates will not be available until a fair number of actual claims are reported and analyzed,” Moody's says. “The results from this analysis are likely still a week or more away.”

In a statement, Moody's Vice President Paul Bauer says that Irene should help support pricing discipline from property and casualty insurers, not necessarily because of the actual damage, but because of what might have been. He says that with only small changes in its track and wind speed, Irene could have had much more severe consequences than what appears to have been the case.

While Moody's does not expect Hurricane Irene to be a major capital or credit event for the industry, the rating agency notes, “While only a Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, we nevertheless expect meaningful losses for U.S. P&C insurers given the scale and track of the hurricane.”