ISABEL'S COST: 29 Lives; $1 Billion

Damage falls below that of similar-sized Floyd

Saturday, September 20, 2003

(4:21 PM ET) (20:21 GMT)

CNN's Brian Cabell and Susan Candiotti in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

Jeanne Meserve in Virginia Beach, Virginia

& Kathleen Koch in Baltimore, Maryland

contributed to this report

"We had three days to prepare for this. We prepared for the worst-case scenario, and that's what we got."

Yahoo! News Photo Slideshow

ISABEL’S WAKE -- CNN
The death toll from Hurricane Isabel reached 29 on Saturday, and the Insurance Information Institute predicted insurers would face storm-related claims of close to $1 billion.

The institute -- a New York-based organization that analyzes and disseminates insurance industry information -- said the payout to Isabel's victims would not likely affect insurance rates.

"Thankfully, Hurricane Isabel as a Category 2 storm did not approach the level of damage of Hurricane Floyd, which hit the same general area in 1999," said Bob Hartwig, the institute's chief economist.

Floyd, twice a Category 4 on its way to the East Coast, came ashore in North Carolina as a Category 2 storm and racked up $4.5 billion in damages ($1.9 billion insured), making it the third-costliest hurricane in U.S. history.

"While formidable, Isabel will fall generally within the range of catastrophic risk that insurers anticipated and built into insurance premiums for homeowners and businesses along the East Coast," Hartwig said. "I would not expect the storm by itself to have a significant effect on insurance rates."

The 29 storm-related deaths happened in seven East Coast states: at least 16 in Virginia; five in Maryland; three in North Carolina; two in New Jersey; and one each in Rhode Island, New York and Pennsylvania.

The storm also had a substantial effect on electricity. Saturday, across an eight-state swath from North Carolina to New Jersey, 3 million people remained without power.

On Kent Island, Maryland, a flotilla of boats sat on dry land Saturday where receding floodwaters left them. On North Carolina's Outer Banks, freshly cut inlets sliced through the barrier islands and kept emergency workers from now-isolated Hatteras Island.

* 'Pumping out, cleaning up'

* States of disaster

(More: CNN.com Weather)

2003 © Cable News Network LP, LLLP.

Dan