The latest estimate of U.S. insured losses from Hurricane Isaac falls between $1 billion and $2 billion, says Risk Management Solutions (RMS).

This includes the possibility of small losses caused by storm surge paid out by wind-only policies, but excludes rainfall-driven flood and National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) losses.

“We've formulated our estimate using a blend of modeling tools, combined with our assessment of key areas of uncertainty and non-modeled losses—excluding flood,” says Christine Ziehmann, director of Model Product Management at RMS, in a statement. “The width of the range reflects some remaining uncertainties, including the variability and uncertainty around loss at very low wind speeds—mostly tropical storm strength—and, in particular, the uncertainty around coverage leakage of surge related losses into wind-only loss payments.”

AIR previously estimated Isaac losses to fall between $700 million and $2 billion.

Category 1 Hurricane Isaac made landfall in Louisiana on August 28 and again in Louisiana on August 29. As it slowly moved northwest, it caused damaging strong winds, storm surge and inland flooding in Louisiana and Mississippi and destructive wind and rain in Arkansas. Isaac tapered to a tropical storm and dissipated on September 1 in Missouri.

Isaac was one of the seven minor hurricanes of the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season, which has also seen 14 tropical storms.

September 10 is officially classified as the peak of the hurricane season, with the months until November 10 still vulnerable to storm activity. A weak to moderate El Niño is forecast to develop during September, potentially inhibiting storm development.

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