Last month RMS (Risk Management Solutions) estimated how much Hurricane Irene will cost the Property and Casualty industry.  The California based company estimates that the insured loss for the United States will be between $2 billion and $4.5 billion, which do not include inland flood losses and all National Flood Insurance Program losses from surge and rains.  Another company, AIR Worldwide estimates the losses to fall between $3 billion to $6 billion.  In addition to the US losses, RMS estimates that the losses in the Caribbean due to a Hurricane Irene being a Category 3 to be about $500,000 million to $1 billion

"Our estimate range reflects some uncertainty, including the definition of hurricane versus non-hurricane deductibles for individual states, and the uncertainty surrounding losses from damage caused by tropical storm winds," said Michael Kistler, director of Model Solutions at RMS. "During Irene, a large swath of tropical-force and low hurricane-force winds swept across a large area of exposure causing widespread, low-levels of damage."

Hurricane Irene made landfall on August 27, 2011 as a category 1 hurricane near Cape Lookout, NC and then made landfall again near Little Egg Inlet, New Jersey on August 28.  The hurricane became a post tropical storm and continued over the United States east coast and up into Canada.  Losses from wind, storm surges and inland flooding were observed in the northern portions of the Caribbean and along the east coast from North Carolina to Vermont.

With downed power lines, Hurricane Irene caused a widespread of power outages in the area.  The damage caused in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast area include reports of total roof detachment but most of the non-flooding damage was less severe with damage to roofs, windows, siding and cars  caused by downed trees and branches.