The power outage which left about 30 million US and Canadian citizens without power for most of last Thursday won’t lead to big insurance claims, says the Insurance Information Institute. The Insurance Information Institute (III) says the last major outage – a two-day blackout in New York in 1977 – led to claims worth about $2.5 million.

Most US commercial insurance policies exclude damage resulting from power failures.

Householders are covered against food spoiliage, but the III says most such claims will be below the normal deductible.

Power was restored to most areas in less than a day, and most business interruption policies don’t come into action until more time has elapsed.