Flooding from Hurricane Ivan’s rain and storm surges prompted more than a billion dollars in claims, making it the costliest hurricane of 2004, U.S. officials said.
Ivan’s damage also made it the third most costly natural disaster in U.S. history, according to flood claim figures released this week by the National Flood Insurance Program.
Including damage that extended across nine states, the flood claims paid to victims of the Category 3 hurricane, said Butch Kinerney, a Washington-based spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which administers the flood insurance program.
Flood victims were paid $58 million (euro47.5 million) after Hurricane Charley struck Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte last August, officials said.
Total losses from Charley came to $7.53 billion (euro6.17 billion) while Ivan caused $8.49 billion (euro6.95 billion) in damage, including flood claims and insurance industry estimates of other insured losses, officials said.
The flood claims pushed Ivan ahead of Charley as the nation’s third-costliest natural disaster. Both hurricanes trail the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, California, that caused $15.9 billion (euro13.02 billion)in damage.
Hurricane Andrew tops the agency’s list; total losses from the 1992 hurricane came to $21.1 billion (euro17.28 billion).
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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