While the insurance world prepares for a string of “September 11 one year later” seminars, there’s another anniversary approaching that in its own way is of equal significance – at least to insurers.

It’s only a few days until the 10^th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, which hit Florida and the Caribbean in 1992 leaving an insurance bill exceeding $30 billion. Andrew damaged or destroyed about 140,000 buildings. If it had crossed the US coast just 20km or so further north, it would have hit central Miami and the cost would have been much higher.

A seminar in Miami a few days ago was told that an Andrew-size hurricane hitting downtown Miami today could cause an insurance loss up to $92 billion and an economic loss of more than $147 billion – far exceeding the estimated cost of the World Trade Centre disaster.