AIR Estimates Dean Mexico Losses ‘Unlikely To Exceed $400 Million’

AIR Worldwide’s provisional assessment of the losses in Mexico from Category 5 Hurricane Dean indicated that they are “unlikely to exceed $400 million.” AIR said its estimate “covers insured losses from wind and flood to property, contents, business interruption and additional living expenses for onshore properties.” An earlier bulletin put the losses from Dean in Jamaica at no more than $1.5 billion (See IJ web site Aug. 21).

“It was the most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in two decades and the first landfalling Category 5 since Hurricane Andrew in 1992,” stated Glen Daraskevich, vice president at AIR Worldwide. “The eye of the storm came ashore at about 3:30 AM local time along a sparsely populated stretch of the Mexican coast near the tourist resort of Majahual, about 40 miles northeast of the state capital Chetumal. Dean’s strongest winds, which occurred to the north of the landfall point, battered an uninhabited 70-mile stretch of coast belonging to the Ka’an Biosphere Reserve. As Dean made its way inland, the center passed about 15 miles north of Chetumal, which has a population near 150,000.”

AIR’s bulletin notes that once Dean came ashore it weakened rapidly, becoming a category one hurricane by the time it passed over the Yucatan Peninsula.

The most recent bulletin from the National Hurricane Center indicates the storm has become a tropical depression, as it crosses the Mexican mainland.

Source: AIR Worldwide – www.air-worldwide.com
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