Privately insured losses from Hurricane Debby will be close to $1.4 billion in the US with approximately $845 million from wind, $130 million from storm surge and $440 million from inland flooding, a catastrophe risk modeller has estimated.

Based on the high-resolution Karen Clark & Company US Hurricane Reference Model, the KCC estimate includes the privately insured damage to residential, commercial and industrial properties, and vehicles as well as business interruption. It does not include boats, offshore properties, or National Flood Insurance Program losses.

The estimates come as meteorologists eye Hurricane Ernesto barrelling down on Bermuda and threatening the US East Coast with the “risk of life-threatening surf and rip currents”, according to a warning from the National Hurricane Centre.

The slow-moving Hurricane Debby made two early-August landfalls – as a Category 1 hurricane with 80mph winds in Florida, and later as a tropical storm with 50mph winds in South Carolina.

High rainfall included 18.16 inches near Parrish, Florida, with totals upwards of 14 inches in Georgia and the Carolinas.

For nearly a week, Hurricane Debby crawled up the eastern US, causing widespread damage from strong winds, storm surge and inland flooding.

KCC said Debby made an initial landfall as a Category 1 hurricane in a sparsely populated area of Florida and quickly weakened after moving inland, which limited the extent of wind-related damage.

Storm surge reached six feet in Cedar Key, Florida, and four feet at locations within Tampa Bay. Coastal flooding was reported in the towns of Crystal River and Horseshoe Beach, but flood waters were not as extensive or deep as those from last year’s Hurricane Idalia and caused only minor damage.

Debby’s second landfall along the South Carolina coast led to storm surge of one to two feet as its slow movement allowed the storm to deliver significant rainfall along its path, resulting in widespread inland flooding all along the east coast.

Rainfall totals in the southeast were well over a foot in some areas of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. As the storm continued north, several inches of rain fell in a swath from Virginia up through Maine.