It Figures

12

Number of tropical storms Colorado State’s hurricane team estimates will occur in 2009. The research team said of those 12 storms, six could become hurricanes including two “major” hurricanes of Category 3 or higher on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale. Hurricanes of that magnitude have sustained winds of more than 110 mph.

4.3

The magnitude of an earthquake that struck Santa Clara Valley, Calif., revealing a fault scientists did not know existed, according to the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif. The quake occurred on a north-south oriented fault about 3 km to the east of the of the Calaveras fault as defined by the past 40 years of earthquake epicenters. “The fault has no name and is not mapped at the surface of the earth,” USGS said.

$2.4 Billion

The amount property/casualty insurers earned in net income after taxes in 2008, according to ISO and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. Despite those results, the groups said profits and profitability both tumbled as catastrophe losses, the recession, and the crisis in the financial system took a toll on underwriting and investment results. And reflecting the decline in net income, the insurance industry’s overall rate of return on average policyholders’ surplus dropped to 0.5 percent in 2008 from 12.4 percent in 2007.

Topics Catastrophe Hurricane