Harvey will test new law that could limit lawsuits against insurers.

Preliminary damage estimates are all over the map, but the claims aren’t even close to wrapping up

Damages caused by Hurricane Harvey could easily surpass the $12.5 billion of insured losses inflicted by Hurricane Ike in 2008, experts said Monday.

Insurance claims mounted statewide as people began phoning in the destruction. But with Harvey continuing to dump rain throughout the Houston area, many homeowners won’t be able to file claims for days to come. And that means it will take a while before final damage estimates can be made.

Meanwhile, there’s a confusing change in Texas insurance laws that takes effect on Friday. Some consumer advocates and others are urging people to inform their insurers of their intent to file claims before the law takes effect. The changes, however, apply to wind damage, not the flooding that has overwhelmed Houston.

The storm is likely to go down in history as one of the most expensive.

“It is a major event, and with the windstorm and the flooding continued, it’s going to be a massive dollar amount that could rival Hurricane Ike’s $12 billion in insured losses,” said Mark Hanna, spokesman for the Insurance Council of Texas.

Preliminary estimates of the damage are all over map.

Enki Holdings, a data analytics firm for natural disasters, estimates there could be $30 billion in overall damage to homes, according to Bloomberg News.

J.P. Morgan reported that Harvey could result in $10 billion to $20 billion of industry-insured losses, making it one of the top 10 most costly hurricanes to hit the U.S.

Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide estimates that industry insured losses resulting from wind and storm surge in Texas will range from $1.2 billion to $2.3 billion. That does not include damages caused by Harvey’s

torrential rain and catastrophic flooding.

With evacuations ongoing Monday and water levels rising, Hanna said some homeowners have yet to see the extent of their damages. And insurance adjusters, therefore, haven’t totaled the losses.

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, the insurer of last resort for wind and hail coverage along the coast, had so far received 4,239 claims as of 2 p.m. Monday.

As of 4 p.m. Monday, Farmers Insurance had received 5,400 Harvey-related claims. That includes more than 1,100 in the city of Houston and more than 2,800 for Houston and the surrounding areas.

State Farm reported about 5,000 claims at the end of Sunday, the most recent numbers available.

Claims information reported by Farmers and State Farm could be for issues such as wind damage to a home or a flooded vehicle. The numbers do not include flooded houses because flood insurance is sold through the federal government’s National Flood Insurance Program.

On Sunday, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which manages the National Flood Insurance Program, said the agency did not yet have specific claims numbers. But the National Flood Insurance Program has about 444,000 policies in potentially impacted counties in Texas.

Don Griffin, vice president of personal lines for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, likewise said that the storm’s damages could be more costly than Hurricane Ike, though it’s difficult to put a figure on it at this point.

“It looks to be a very significant storm,” he said.

He said those experiencing damages will have to be patient. Insurance companies have adjusters in the area ready to respond — many already responding where it’s safe to do so – but Griffin said the claims process could take longer than some other storms. That’s because Harvey caused damages across such a large area and accessing damaged properties is still impossible in many places.

As claims mount, plaintiffs’ attorneys and a consumer watchdog group are urging home and business owners who suffered damages to file written notice of property insurance claims before a new state takes effect on Friday. By doing so, those policyholders will preserve their ability to collect an 18 percent penalty interest rate that insurance companies have to pay when they fail to pay a legitimate claim “timely and fully.” That interest rate will drop to 10 percent under the new law. The difference could amount to thousands of dollars on a major claim.

The law applies to wind claims but does not govern flood insurance, which almost exclusively is covered under the National Flood Insurance Program, said state Rep. Greg Bonnen, the Friendswood Republican who sponsored the bill that became law. The measure also does not apply to policyholders with the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, which provides hailstorm and windstorm insurance in coastal counties, he added.

As concerns continued over the new insurance law going into effect Friday, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, called on Gov. Greg Abbott to convene a special session to delay the effective date of the law.

An Abbott aide didn’t return messages seeking comment.

Ware Wendell, executive director of Texas Watch, a nonprofit consumer group with ties to the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, said property owners’ ability to challenge insurance companies would be hurt by the new law.

But Lucy Nashed, a spokeswoman for Texans for Lawsuit Reform, accused plaintiffs’ attorneys of spreading misinformation.