MIAMI (Bloomberg) ? Hurricane Jeanne, which slammed into Florida?s yesterday, may cost insurers $6 billion to $14 billion, rivalling Hurricane Charley as the most expensive storm of the season, storm modeller Eqecat Inc. said yesterday.

Jeanne made landfall near Stuart on Florida?s east coast early yesterday morning with maximum sustained winds near 120 mph.

Estimates rose from Saturday?s $4 billion to $7 billion as Jeanne travelled farther west-northwest than predicted toward the Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg area, said Tom Larsen, senior vice president at Eqecat.

?This one looks to be the worst that has struck Florida this year,? said Larsen, whose Oakland, California-based company uses computer models to estimate insurance claims. ?It?s either first or second.?

Insurers already face $14 billion to $17 billion of losses from hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan, with Charley?s claims expected to be about $6.5 billion. It is the first time in Florida?s history that four hurricanes have hit the state in the same year.

Jeanne struck Florida as a category three storm on the five-tier Saffir-Simpson scale, ripping off roofs and downing trees and power lines as it moved across the peninsula.

Ratings agency A.M. Best said on Friday that it believed that primary insurers in Florida, including Allstate Corp. and Chubb Corp., had enough funds and reinsurance to pay for another storm as Hurricane Jeanne headed toward the state.

Jeanne is no threat to the solvency of the roughly 100 Florida insurers analysed by A.M. Best, the largest credit rater focused exclusively on the insurance industry. Allstate is among companies that have bought additional reinsurance to help pay for losses.

?I don?t see significant rating actions,? A.M. Best analyst Anthony Diodato said in an interview. ?No one is going bare without reinsurance.?

Homeowners and businesses were expected to file insurance claims worth an estimated $4.4 billion for property damage caused by this month?s Hurricane Frances, according to an actuarial firm?s preliminary estimate.

The Associated Press said on Thursday that Florida accounted for $4.1 billion of the insured property losses from the storm that hit the state?s Treasure Coast on September 5, according to New Jersey-based ISO.

The estimate released Thursday does not include flood and uninsured damage. Total damage is typically double the insured figure.