Hurricane Isaias: Manageable for Insurers, With 55,000 Claims and $651M in Losses So Far

The late-season hurricane known as Isaias had produced about 55,000 claims in Florida with estimated insured losses at $651 million, within two weeks of the Oct. 9 storm, carriers have reported to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.

The hurricane made landfall in the Florida Panhandle near Pensacola, and the numbers compare to Hurricane Sally, which hit nearly the same area in 2020 and produced 72,000 claims and $577 million in losses within six weeks.

Isaias, a Category 2 storm which Karen Clark & Co. has predicted will result in about $3 billion in total insured losses across the Southeastern United States, was small enough that it is unlikely to have an impact on most carriers’ reinsurance renewals, Gallagher Re said in a report. AM Best called it an “earnings event” that will have little effect on insurers’ surplus levels or financial stability.

Most of the Isaias claims have come from residential property owners. Some 22% of those claims had been closed by Oct. 20–many of them without payment, OIR reported. The most-often cited reason for no payment–a new reporting category required by OIR this year– is “administrative reasons,” which may include claims withdrawn by the insured, duplicate claims, or an inability to communicate with the policyholder.

Other reasons claims were closed without payment included damage that was below the deductible or damage caused by flooding that was not covered by the insurance policy.

Trees were down everywhere across the Panhandle after the tempest. A number of policyholders with trees down quickly filed claims after the storm, but then realized the tree had not actually damaged the home or that the HO policy does not cover tree removal or that the claim would fall below the deductible, said Keith Goolsby, an insurance agent who is married to the owner at The Siler Agency in Pensacola.

One Pensacola-area policyholder will have a claim, Goolsby said. A tree fell through her roof, and when power was restored a few days after the hurricane, the house caught fire. About half of the home was destroyed, he said.

Escambia County, Florida’s westernmost county and home to the city of Pensacola, by Oct. 20 had seen almost 16,700 claims. Santa Rosa County, next door, had the most claims, with 26,297. That included some of the largest properties in Milton, Florida: An apartment complex that lost much of its roof structure and a nearby high school gymnasium, which also saw part of its roof peeled away.

Isaias proved to be somewhat unusual in that its eastern eyewall did not produce the strongest winds or the most wind claims. The storm’s eye came ashore near the resort city of Destin in Okaloosa County. But Okaloosa and Walton counties together had produced some 7,200 claims by Oct. 20–fewer than expected.

Topics Carriers Catastrophe Natural Disasters Claims Profit Loss Hurricane