Sandy floods may cause huge losses: Fitch

CHICAGO: Global rating agency Fitch says Hurricane Sandy’s effects are being felt across the entire coastline of the Mid-Atlantic region, up through New England and into inland areas as far as the Great Lakes area. EQECAT, Inc.’s initial insured loss estimate is between $5 billion-$10 billion, with economic damages of approximately $10 billion-$20 billion. At the low end, losses from Hurricane Sandy would roughly equal losses generated by Hurricane Irene, which struck the East Coast in August 2011. However, due to the widespread nature of the storm, it will take some time for catastrophe modeling firms and local loss adjusters to accurately estimate insured losses.