MEXICO CITY - Three powerful hurricanes that hammered Mexico this year have caused damages worth some 17.97 billion pesos ($1.67 billion), the Mexican Association of Insurance Institutions said Tuesday.
The figure, which the association said could still raise, was based on estimations by local insurers across southern and southeastern Mexico, where several states were hit hard by hurricanes Emily, Stan and Wilma.
Earlier this month, President Vicente Fox said hurricanes Stan and Wilma had caused damages worth over $2.8 billion.
Insurers put damages at 15.2 billion pesos ($1.4 billion) from Hurricane Wilma, which devastated much of Mexico's resort-lined Caribbean coast last month, tearing up hotel lobbies in Cancun and blowing away white-sand beaches.
Cozumel island, a scuba-diving paradise, was also badly damaged.
Mexico's palm-fringed Caribbean holiday resorts are its biggest tourist pull, bringing in around a third of the country's tourism revenues.
Stan, which killed some 2,000 people across Central America in mudslides and floods in early October, is reckoned to have cost the southern Mexican states of Veracruz and Chiapas around 595 million pesos.
Emily caused some 2.17 billion pesos of damage in July as it pounded Mexico's Caribbean states, then crossed the Gulf of Mexico and hit Mexico's northeast coast. Emily also hit oil exports as drilling platforms were evacuated and ports closed.
AMIS said it had counted 9,932 insurance claims so far for Wilma alone, including claims for damages to cars.
The head of Banamex Seguros, Jaime Larrea, told Reuters Wilma had cost it $13 million, a sum he said would be mainly covered by reinsurers.
"We can't complain -- insurance companies have had three or four really good years, no hurricanes, no floods and no earthquakes to hit our portfolios. This year with Emily, Stan and Wilma, the industry has been hit hard," he said.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
