Sandy Damage Estimate Raised to as Much as $50 Billion

Superstorm Sandy caused as much as $50 billion in economic damage, with about $10 billion to $20 billion of insured losses, more than double previous estimates, said Eqecat Inc., a provider of catastrophic risk models.

Major failures of electric and utility systems, which caused business interruptions, spurred the company to increase its estimate for insured losses, it said today in a statement. Subway and tunnel outages also led to “higher expectations of loss amplifications,” the report said.