A busy month of back-to-back hurricanes in September has left insurers paying billions in claims, but so far initial responses indicate lessons learned from Katrina are paying off.
Hurricane Gustav powered its way toward the Gulf Coast in late August and at one point reached Category 4-strength, meaning wind speeds were measured between 131 and 155 mph.
What had most insurers nervous, however, was whether Gustav would cause the kind of residential and commercial damage sustained when Hurricane Katrina hit almost three years ago to the day. The general consensus is that insurers dodged a bullet — even though claim payouts are expected to be in the billions — because the storm did not develop as strongly as expected and failed to make a direct hit on New Orleans.
Recommended For You
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
