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Hurricane Zeta sets record, losses may reach $5 billion

Hurricane Zeta insurance losses may reach $US1.5-3.5 billion ($2.1-5 billion) after it last month set a record for the number of named storm to make US landfall in a season, catastrophe modelling firm AIR Worldwide says.

Zeta became the 11th named storm to make US landfall in 2020, breaking a record set in 1916. It was the fifth to hit Louisiana this year, crossing the coast three weeks after Hurricane Delta and about nine weeks after Laura.

Zeta hit the coastline near Cocodrie, south of New Orleans, on October 28 as a “high-end” Category 2 storm with one-minute sustained wind speeds of 177 kph.

The storm tracked through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, where it weakened to a tropical storm, with remnants then continuing across Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia.

“Despite Zeta moving directly over New Orleans, the levees protected that city from storm surge,” AIR says. “Inundation in Mississippi and Alabama was confined to coastal areas, with Mississippi’s coast experiencing the largest storm surge.”