Reacting to an expert's negative comments about insurance companies' use of catastrophe models, industry representatives said carriers have improved their use and understanding of models since Hurricane Katrina.

Their comments came in response to a speech by Karen Clark, president of Karen Clark and Company and a pioneer in the modeling field. Ms. Clark said in a recent speech that insurers have become too reliant on catastrophe models when deciding which risks should be cancelled and which ones are acceptable.

She is not the only recent critic of catastrophe modeling use. A regulator this week suggested models had an excessive impact on rating firms and insurer rate requests.