document: US INSURERS expect to pay out an estimated Dollars 7.3 bn -LRB- Pounds 3.7 bn -RRB- in Florida as a result of Hurricane Andrew - by far the costliest disaster the industry has ever faced . The figure is the first official tally of the damage resulting from the hurricane , which ripped through southern Florida last week . In the battered region it is estimated that 275,000 people still have no electricity and at least 150,000 are either homeless or are living amid ruins . President George Bush yesterday made his second visit to the region since the hurricane hit . He pledged the government would see through the clean-up ` until the job is done ' . Although there had already been some preliminary guesses at the level of insurance claims , yesterday 's figure comes from the Property Claims Services division of the American Insurance Services Group , the property-casualty insurers ' trade association . It follows an extensive survey of the area by the big insurance companies . Mr Gary Kerney , director of catastrophe services at the PCS , said the industry was expecting about 685,000 claims in Florida alone . It is reckoned the bulk of the damage - over Dollars 6bn in insured claims - is in Dade County , a rural region to the south of Miami . However , the final cost of Hurricane Andrew will be higher still . Yesterday 's estimate does not include any projection for claims in Louisiana , which was also affected by the storm , although less severely than Florida . An estimate of the insured losses in this second state will be released later this week . But on the Florida losses alone , Hurricane Andrew becomes the most costly insured catastrophe in the US . Hurricane Hugo , which hit the east coast in September 1989 , cost the insurance industry about Dollars 4.2 bn . The Oakland fire disaster , in California last year , cost Dollars 1.2 bn . By contrast , insurance claims resulting from the Los Angeles riots earlier this year - the most expensive civil disturbance in the US - totalled just Dollars 775m . Hurricane Andrew leaves the US property-casualty insurers facing their worst-ever year for catastrophe losses . The LA riots and a series of tornadoes , wind and hailstorms in states such as Kansas , Oklahoma and Iowa had already produced insured losses of Dollars 3.9 bn . With Florida 's Hurricane Andrew losses added in , the total rises to Dollars 11.2 bn . This easily exceeds the record Dollars 7.6 bn of catastrophe losses seen in 1989 , when the industry paid out on both Hurricane Hugo and the Loma Prieta earthquake in California . Wall Street , however , has reacted calmly to the record losses expected , and insurers ' shares - although lower initially - have been firming recently . The property-casualty industry is thought to have adequate reserves to cover the disaster .
extractive_keyphrases: hurricane andrew insurance claims property claims insurance industry insured losses florida losses
abstractive_keyphrases: property-casualty industry