Assessing the damage

摘要

The sun was brilliant, the Mediterranean sparkling, the Bentleys and Lam-borghinis polished to perfection in front of the Hotel de Paris. It might have been just another care-free day in Monte Carlo. But across the plaza the chatter under the awnings at the Cafe de Paris was far from light-hearted. There, the world's insurers and reinsurers were counting the cost of a hurricane 5,000 miles away. September's rendezvous in Monte Carlo, one of the year's biggest international gatherings of reinsurers and their clients, often seems to occur at a time of crisis. In 2001, the usual networking ground to a halt as those attending clustered around television sets, watching in horror as the World Trade Centre collapsed with scores of their colleagues inside. Last year, there was a string of devastating hurricanes in Florida. This week, the general view was that Hurricane Katrina has been the toughest blow in a long time, with as many as 2m claims expected. "I've been in the industry for 30 years," said Paul Mar-key, chairman of Aon (Bermuda), a large broker. "This is like nothing I've seen."