Counting the cost: Cleaning up after Hurricane Katrina will produce the biggest insurance bill in history, possibly as much as $50 billion.
The prediction by Dane Douetil, chief executive of Brit Insurance, was accompanied by forecasts of rising premiums, particularly for US commercial property and reinsurance.
It will be some time before the official bill can be calculated. Many insurers have yet to send loss-adjusters because of the severity of the situation.
Mr Douetil said the hurricane "is likely to be the biggest-ever insured loss. $50 billion would not be a surprising loss." This surpasses the insurance bill for Hurricane Andrew, in Florida in 1992.
Policies sold to homeowners in the affected areas do not include flood cover, which is sold separately. Insurers will be trying to assess whether the damage was caused by winds, which is covered by domestic policies, or by flooding, which is not.
