document: HURRICANE Andrew , claimed to be the costliest natural disaster in US history , yesterday smashed its way through the state of Louisiana , inflicting severe damage on rural communities but narrowly missing the low-lying city of New Orleans . The storm , which brought havoc to southern Florida on Monday and then headed north-west across the Gulf of Mexico , had made landfall late on Tuesday night some 60 miles south-west of the city in the agricultural Cajun country . Although the damage from the hurricane 's landfall in Florida on Monday was much greater than initially esti mated , insurers ' losses there are likely to total less than Dollars 1bn , well below earlier expectations , a senior member of Lloyd 's insurance market said yesterday . In Louisiana , the hurricane landed with wind speeds of about 120 miles per hour and caused severe damage in small coastal centres such as Morgan City , Franklin and New Iberia . Associated tornadoes devastated Laplace , 20 miles west of New Orleans . Then , however , Andrew lost force as it moved north over land . By yesterday afternoon , it had been down-graded to tropical storm , in that its sustained windspeeds were below 75 mph . Initial reports said at least one person had died , 75 been injured and thousands made homeless along the Louisiana coast , after 14 confirmed deaths in Florida and three in the Bahamas . The storm caused little damage to Louisiana 's important oil-refining industry , although some plants had to halt production when electricity was cut . The Lloyd 's member , in close contact with leading insurers in Florida , said that damage to insured property was remarkably small . More than Dollars 15bn of damage may have been caused in all , but was mostly to uninsured property , he said . In north Miami , damage is minimal . Worst affected is one hotel , whose basement was flooded . Most of the destruction occurred in a 10-mile band across Homestead , 25 miles to the south of Miami , where a typical house sells for Dollars 100,000 to Dollars 150,000 . US insurers will face a bill in respect of such properties , but Lloyd 's exposure there is minimal . Many destroyed power lines are thought to be uninsured , as are trees and shrubs uprooted across a wide area . Only one big hotel in that area has been badly damaged , a Holiday Inn . Across Florida , some 2m people remained without electric ity yesterday and health officials were warning the public to boil or chemically treat all water . Hurricane Hugo , which devastated much of South Carolina in 1989 , cost the insurance industry some Dollars 4.2 bn . Further uninsured losses may have raised the total to Dollars 6bn-Dollars 10bn .
extractive_keyphrases: hurricane andrew louisiana severe damage new orleans tropical storm uninsured losses landfall