Last week the chief U.S. underwriter for Swiss Re said damage losses may hit $32 billion, nearly 25 percent higher than the industry consensus, due to modelers failing to take into account mold damage and inflationary items.

Mike Gannon, spokesman for the Boston-based AIR Worldwide, said his modeling firm accounts for damage to home contents that results from rain, but not from "mold that is after the fact."

In any event, he noted his organization put damage estimates from the four storms at between $19 billion and $35 billion, so he does not see any underestimation.

But Mr. Gannon said what he terms "demand surge" or post catastrophe inflation and increased adjustment causes are considered in AIR's damage estimates.

John Eager, senior director of property claims for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, said it is often hard to make the distinction between mold and water damage. And so the fact there is no breakout is not all that significant.

"I don't think there is a separate group of claims called ?mold claims.' There are wind-driven water claims that are associated with water inside the home," Mr. Eager said.

He disputed the Swiss Re contention that somehow storm-related mold claims will trickle in over a period of months.

"I think they will show up right away," he said.

But in general, PCI has expressed concern with some damage estimates coming from the modeling firms due to what he termed their "vast" range.

He recalled the National Association of Insurance Commissioners looking into the issue two years ago. But in the end no action was taken.

Tom Larsen, senior vice president of the Oakland, Calif.-based EQECAT, said that initial loss damages are calculated primarily for the benefit of carriers trying to determine how many adjusters and how much funding will need to be readily available.

While agreeing that mold is definitely a factor when a series of drenching rains hits an area and catastrophe inflation is a real problem, they cannot be factored all that accurately into initial estimates, according to Mr. Larsen.

"It is very difficult to do it," he said. "On an average we have a very good way to predict and help people plan for it, but as to a specific outcome, it is very difficult."

In related news, Cincinnati Financial announced Monday that third-quarter pretax catastrophe losses net of reinsurance will come to $94 million. The impact on the quarterly property-casualty combined ratio, after an $11 million reinsurance premium, would be about 13 percentage points.