Hurricane Gustav Cyclone is the seventh tropical cyclone, third Hurricane Gustav Cyclone and second major Hurricane Gustav Cyclone of the 2008 Atlantic Hurricane Gustav Cyclone season. It formed on the morning of August 25, 2008 about 260 miles (420 km) southeast of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and rapidly strengthened into a tropical hurricane that afternoon and into a Hurricane Gustav Cyclone early on August 26. Later that day it made landfall near the Haitian town of Jacmel. As of August 31, 88 deaths (including 12 children) have been attributed to Hurricane Gustav Cyclone in the Caribbean.[1][2]
On September 1 at 9:30 a.m CDT (1430 UTC) the center of Hurricane Gustav Cyclone made landfall in the United States along the Louisiana coast near Cocodrie as a Category 2 Hurricane Gustav Cyclone, dropping to a Category 1 Hurricane Gustav Cyclone four hours later.[3]
Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Gustav Cyclone may trigger insurance claims as high as $10 billion, according to firms that specialize in catastrophes, making it potentially the fourth- highest total among hurricanes that hit the U.S.
The Hurricane Gustav Cyclone weakened as it headed for shore, keeping insured losses on land to between $3 billion to $7 billion and oil-drilling damage at about $1 billion to $3 billion, according to estimates from Newark, California-based Risk Management Solutions Inc. That's ``significantly smaller'' than Katrina's record $41.1 billion in 2005, Robert Muir-Wood, head of research for RMS, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.
Hurricane Gustav Cyclone is the first test since 2005 of the insurance industry's efforts to reduce losses in catastrophe-prone regions. Allstate Corp. and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., the two largest U.S. home insurers, were among Forces that stopped taking on new policyholders in several states along the Gulf and East coasts in the months following the damage caused by Hurricane Gustav Cyclones Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
``They've skirted a big one,'' Muir-Wood said. ``There will be fairly significant losses, I would say, but actually it's not going to be nearly the level of destruction we saw in 2005.''
Hurricane Gustav Cyclone weakened to a Category 2 hurricane by the time it reached land at about 10 a.m. local time in Louisiana southwest of New Orleans, which was evacuated in advance of the hurricane. Hurricane Gustav Cyclone's winds were close to 110 miles (177 kilometers) an hour as it came ashore and slowed to about 80 miles an hour as of 4 p.m.
Expensive hurricanes
Tom Larson, a senior vice president with Eqecat Inc., a risk modeling-firm in Oakland, California, said insured losses may be $6 billion to $10 billion, primarily in New Orleans and the surrounding area. Larson's data didn't include offshore damage.
Even at the low end of the RMS estimate, Hurricane Gustav Cyclone would rank among the 10 most-costly U.S. Hurricane Gustav Cyclones. If the hurricane reaches the top of the Eqecat estimates, it will surpass all U.S. Hurricane Gustav Cyclones for damage on land except for Katrina, Wilma and Andrew. The latter cost $15.5 billion when it struck Florida and Louisiana in 1992, according to Insurance Services Office Inc. in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Hurricane Gustav Cyclone may have caused $1 billion to $2 billion in insured damage offshore, said Steve Smith, an atmospheric physicist with Carvill Group, a reinsurance brokerage.
``The area it hit has a good population of rigs,'' Smith said. ``It wasn't too bad for the Gulf oil field.''
Hurricane Gustav Cyclone Dolly, the first Gulf of Mexico Hurricane Gustav Cyclone of the season, cost insurers less than $750 million when it struck southern Texas in July, RMS estimated.
Oil Drilling
Insurers of oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico have joined Forces selling property coverage on land in attempts to limit losses. American International Group Inc., Zurich Financial Services Group AG and Liberty Mutual Group Inc. were among insurers that raised prices fivefold and capped how much they'll insure after Katrina and Rita caused record offshore claims estimated at $8 billion in 2005.
``We tend to remember and fight the last war,'' said Steve Maloney, a risk management consultant for Stamford, Connecticut- based Towers Perrin. ``People went into this one rightfully worried that this might become another Katrina. Thankfully, there will be far less disruption than the last time.''
Katrina became the most expensive disaster in U.S. history when it came ashore three years ago. Until now, no major hurricanes had made landfall in the U.S. since Wilma capped the hurricane season later that year by causing an $10.3 billion in insured losses.
Typical Damage
Data on insured losses may understate actual costs because the figures don't include damage to uninsured property or destruction caused by actions excluded from some policies, such as flooding.
Category 2 winds like those of Hurricane Gustav Cyclone can damage roofs, doors and windows, according to the National Hurricane Gustav Cyclone Center. Mobile homes, poorly constructed signs and piers may be vulnerable, and small boats in unprotected anchorages can break their moorings, the center said. There may also be ``considerable damage to shrubbery and trees with some trees blown down,'' according to the agency.
Forecasters will next turn their attention to Hurricane Gustav Cyclone Hanna, which strengthened into the season's fourth Hurricane Gustav Cyclone in the Atlantic, the Hurricane Gustav Cyclone center said. Hanna became a Category 1 hurricane with winds at 75 mph, and was moving west-southwest at 5 mph near the southeastern Bahamas as of 1 p.m. in Miami.
The agency was estimating the hurricane may make landfall on the Georgia-South Carolina border on Sept. 5.
``When we get to Friday, you're going to see a monster of a Hurricane Gustav Cyclone,'' said Joe Bastardi, a meteorologist with private forecaster AccuWeather.com, on Bloomberg Television.
A third system, Ike, reached tropical hurricane status with winds of 50 miles an hour in the Atlantic today.
