A Galveston police officer takes bricks out of the road in front of the Yaga's Café building where an exterior wall collapsed in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita in downtown Galveston yesterday. Hurricane Rita slammed into the oil-rich swamplands of the Texas-Louisiana border yesterday with 120 mph (193 kph) winds and punishing rains that threatened widespread flooding. - Reuters
NEW YORK, (Reuters):
HURRICANE RITA caused an estimated US$2.5-US$5 billion in insured losses in eastern Texas and western Louisiana, catastrophe risk modeler AIR Worldwide said yesterday.
AIR said Rita losses will be much lower than those from Hurricane Katrina because this storm weakened significantly in the day or so before it struck land, sparing in particular, crucial refineries at a time when supplies of gasolene and other refined products are already stretched.
"The heavy commercial and industrial areas of Port Arthur and Beaumont with their numerous refineries were to the left of the storm's track, where wind speeds are lower, so we do not expect to see significant structural damage to the refineries," Jayanta Guin, vice-president of research and modeling at AIR Worldwide, said in a statement.
AIR also said the areas worst hit by Rita had fewer insured properties in general than those areas ravaged by Katrina, contributing to the lower loss forecast.
Rita slammed into evacuated towns and oil-rich swamplands of the Texas-Louisiana border early yesterday, causing widespread damage and power outages. The powerful storm hit with 120 mph (193 kph) winds and punishing rains, then weakened slightly as it moved inland.
It spared Houston, the fourth-largest U.S. city, a direct hit, which had insurers and reinsurers breathing a sigh of relief.
"I think for the complex in the Houston area, I would have to assume it is going to be minor if anything, just because the storm moved far enough east," said Bruce Jefferis, managing director of the natural resources unit at AON, the top global reinsurance broker.
But the oil city of Beaumont, Texas, and many of the largest U.S. refiners were in Rita's path, and the extent of damage was not yet known, nor was it clear how badly Rita damaged production in the nearby Gulf of Mexico.
"I'm fairly concerned right now about what's happened offshore, because Rita took a worse path for the offshore assets than Katrina did," Jefferis said. "The worst part of the storm would have been on the east side, which would have been right up the concentration of the assets."
