Charley Damage Estimate in Florida: $11 billion

[ringmastery]

http://www.news-press.com/news/weather/hurricane/stories/040814losses-update.html

TALLAHASSEE — The first official estimate of Hurricane Charley's damage in Florida: $11 billion in insured losses.

Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, returning from a helicopter tour Saturday of the worst of the damage in Charlotte, DeSoto and Hardy counties with insurance industry executives, said that amount is mostly residential losses.

He said it does not include uninsured losses.

Sam Miller, executive vice president of the Florida Insurance Council, said that typically half of a major storm's damage is uninsured. He is basing that on the experience of Hurricane Andrew, where $15.6 billion of the $30 billion losses, in 1992 dollars, were insured.

Gallagher said there is twist that could make Charley more painful.

Andrew cut through Homestead, and the damage was concentrated in a relatively small area that included a large amount of high-income homes. That differed from what Gallagher, who also was the state insurance commissioner in 1992, saw Saturday.

"There were quite a few people at the centers we went to who owned mobile homes who did not have insurance," he said. "It was a little different than we had in Homestead, where most everybody had insurance."

[swag]

1. Wow, that's a bit less than has gone to Halliburton's thieving pockets

directly from ours for the devastation if Iraq.

I think Halliburton should PAY for the Florida reconstruction, but should definitely NOT be given any contracts, as we have ample evidence of their thieving ways.

[JohnnyRingo]

2. It's a battleground state.....GW will have the check in his pocket...

...When he arrives there this week. *Photo op*

[Cha]

4. Good! Those People will get help and

bush is still going to lose.

[JohnnyRingo]

5. Yep...The timing of this disaster may be to their advantage

I hope so.
If he plays it smart, Buxh may pick up a few votes, however.

[IrishBloodEngHeart]

3. I can tell you as of yesterday,

the insurance industry estimate of covered losses was $9.2B, which includes things like demand surge which makes living expenses, materiels, and labor all more expensive due to increased demand and temporary scarcity.

So, it looks like it was actually worse than we all thought it would be yesterday.

[Melodybe]

6. The National Guard is usually there to help with these kinds of things

unfortunately they are not in our nation at the moment, so more will suffer.

Iraq is sucking all the life out of this country.

No photo-op will change that.

[rsmith6621]

7. Watch Out taxpayers

I certianly hope that someone is monitoring the Federal Aid Check that Bro Geroge will sign soon.....Jeb had estimated 15 billion before Charley had even hit the coast.....and that was when they thought it would hit Tampa/St Petersburg.

[Tight_rope]

8. What's Jeb the jackass going to do with the other 5 billion?