Insurers Pay $4.3B in 2000 Claims

Tuesday, January 23rd 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) â€” Property and casualty insurers paid $4.3 billion in claims in 2000, making the year the second-least costliest in a decade, according to estimates released Tuesday by Insurance Services Office Inc.

The New York-based ISO's Property Claim Services unit said insurers paid more than 1.4 million claims last year, down from the $8.3 billion paid to settle 3.3 million claims in 1999. In 1998, insurers paid $10 billion to settle 3.5 million claims.

Winter storms in the South last January were the costliest of 24 catastrophic events for the year.

The industry spent an estimated $550 million to cover losses from freezing hail, ice and snow in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia.

The industry's most expensive year since record keeping began in 1949 was 1992, when insurers paid $22.9 billion in claims from 36 catastrophes, including Hurricanes Andrew and Iniki.

The ISO defines a catastrophe as an event that causes $25 million or more in insured property losses.