Bermuda?s reinsurance industry could face billion dollar claims from two-timing Hurricane Katrina, after the storm caused flood damage in Southern Florida on Friday only to strengthen for a more severe onslaught of the Gulf Coast region yesterday.

While Bermuda?s reinsurers may individually take days, even weeks, to issue estimates of what they could pay out in claims arising from Katrina?s damage, it could be as high as 30 percent of the total bill.

Early predictions of claims that could arise from Katrina?s deadly path across parts of Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana were between $10 billion and $25 billion, according to catastrophe risk modelling company Risk Management Solutions last night.

RMS meteorologist Kyle Beatty told by telephone from California, that the estimate should narrow by Thursday, after reports from its own experts are handed in.

?Each day we will have a more refined point of view but by Thursday we will have the highest confidence? in terms of what happened across the region, with it taking more time to assess damage in some areas because there are no methods in place to immediately assess wind speeds, he said.

?[Katrina is a major event but it could have been much worse,? said Jim Bryce, chief executive of IPC Re, a Bermuda reinsurer formed to sell property-catastrophe reinsurance after costly damage from Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Reinsurance is insurance bought by insurers wishing to spread the risk contained in the policies they have sold.

?We most certainly will have meaningful involvement [in claims from Katrina, and that is as it should be,? Mr. Bryce said. ?That is exactly what we are there for; these big events.?

Brokers, who find reinsurance and insurance for their clients to buy, generally put the scope of losses taken by the Bermuda market for any one event that occurs in an area where insurance is commonly sold, at between 20 and 30 percent of total claims.

Mr. Beatty said on-land claims arising from property damage, contents damage, business interruption, additional living expenses and flood damage are likely from Katrina.

He could not speak to what extent Bermuda insurance and reinsurance companies, many of whom are RMS clients, could be exposed to Katrina-related claims.

Mr. Beatty said RMS? estimate includes ?the potential for significant physical damage and loss of production to the offshore oil and gas industry?.

Mr. Bryce said Bermuda companies selling specialised policies in the London market are the most likely to see claims from damage to the offshore oil and gas rigs, with that market having a hold on marine and energy insurance and reinsurance.

?Quite frankly this is the most meaningful hurricane we?ve had since Hurricane Andrew,? Mr. Bryce said yesterday.

However, he downplayed comparisons between its overall impact on the industry and that of Hurricane Andrew, which ?was of a magnitude never before seen before?, putting some companies out of business because claims exceeded the highest range of insurance coverage that could be bought.

The advance of modelling technology, and the greater level of capital backing insurance and reinsurance companies today, make Katrina a much less serious event, he said.

Hurricane Andrew devastated parts of Florida in 1992, and remains the most costly single storm ever with insurers paying out claims totalling some $20.86 billion, in today?s dollars.