billion to Hurricane Georges victims in Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and four states on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

The preliminary figures from the property claim services (PCS) unit of the Insurance Services Office (ISO), based in New York accounts for the massive damage to homes and businesses as a result of 125 mile-per-hour winds and torrential rains.

Hurricane Georges is the costliest hurricane so far this year, and the first billion-dollar catastrophe since Hurricane Fran in September 1996, when North and South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio sustained insured property losses, according to PCS, of some $1.6 billion.

Hurricane Georges wreaked damage to insured personal and commercial property and vehicles of some $1.7 billion in Puerto Rico, $50 million in the US Virgin Islands, $325 million in Florida, $310 million in Mississippi, $100 million in Alabama and $15 million in Louisiana.

PCS estimates that insureds will file some 685,000 claims with insurers.

The hurricane made landfall near Biloxi, Mississippi, September 28, battering a wide section of the Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Pensacola, Florida.

Before that it had caused widespread property damage in the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the Florida Keys. It was later downgraded to a tropical storm, as it moved inland.

Many of the reported insurance claims in the Gulf Coast states involved damage to structures by rain entering through roofs and sidewalls. Direct wind damage, by comparison, was relatively minor, although there were widespread power outages that left people without power for up to 72 hours.

The PCS unit defines a catastrophe as an event that causes insured property losses of $25 million or more, and affects a significant number of property and casualty policyholders and insurers.

The PCS estimate represents anticipated insured loss on an industry-wide basis arising from the catastrophe, reflecting the total net insurance payment for personal and commercial property lines of insurance, covering fixed property, personal property, vehicles, boats, related property items and business interruption losses. The estimates exclude loss-adjustment expenses.