US emergency insurance chief: Harvey losses could top $11 billion

WASHINGTON — The head of the US National Flood Insurance Program says early estimates show Hurricane Harvey will result in about $11 billion in payouts to insured homeowners, mostly in southeast Texas.

That would likely put Harvey as the second costliest storm in the history of the federal insurance program, says Roy E. Wright, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s deputy associate administrator for insurance and mitigation. More than $16 billion was paid out after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

It is still too soon to estimate losses from Hurricane Irma, Wright says. But he predicts that the storm damage in Florida and other affected states could rival the nearly $9 billion paid out after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

Even before the recent back-to-back hurricanes, the federal flood insurance program was about $25 billion in debt to the US Treasury. Wright says the program currently has enough cash to absorb the initial wave of payments to help homeowners get back on their feet but will need billions more within about a month.

— AP