Bermuda's insurance and reinsurance market could be hit by bills of billions of dollars in payouts for the devastation wreaked in the Caribbean by Hurricane Dean.

The storm battered Jamaica with winds of up to 150mph tearing off roofs, uprooting trees and downing power lines on the island and it is expected to strike Mexico next, with hurricane warnings in the coast of Belize and the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, from Belize City to Cancun.

Martinque and St Lucia also reported sever damage to their banana crop, on which they are heavily dependent, with Martinque losses in destroyed banana and sugar can plantations as well as damages to infrastructure, predicted to cost more than $270 million.

Meanwhile the Cayman Islands have been spared the brunt of the hurricane.

EQECAT Inc., a top authority on extreme risk modelling, said initial estimates for insured losses from Hurricane Dean from the Lesser Antilles islands to Jamaica could range between $1.5bn to $3bn, with the majority of losses in Jamaica.

The losses include everything from wind damage to commercial and residential buildings such as offices, factories, warehouses and homes to business interruption as a result of destroyed property and a surge in demand for products and services to repair the initial damage outstripping supply locally and leading to higher costs of importing the resources from further afield.

Excluded from the California-based company's estimates are losses related to flooding, private and commercial vehicles and marine assets including boats.

But the true cost of the damage will not be known for some time. Insurers and reinsurers, such as Flagstone Re who are known to have a exposure risk to the Caribbean market having recently taken over Caymans' Island Heritage insurance operation, are bracing themselves for insured losses payouts.