bosses believe.

Many took a deep breath as damage claims began trickling into their offices from 7 a.m. yesterday.

But by mid-afternoon, Felix was being dubbed a pussy-cat compared to Hurricane Emily.

Damage reports ranged from smashed sliding glass doors, blown-out windows and floodings, to a Norfolk pine crashing onto a Paget home.

Felix's savaging of St. George's Club, Pink Beach, and Mermaid Beach prompted the biggest claims.

BF&M Insurance Group, which has a 50 percent share of the homes market, reported 50 claims by 4.30 p.m.

"We estimate the cost to be somewhere between $700,000 and $900,000. The figure has been building throughout the day,'' said president and chief executive officer Mr. Glenn Titterton.

Another insurance boss likened Felix to Hurricane Dean whose day-long visit in 1989 is believed to have cost Bermuda some $5 million.

"My gut feeling is that Felix probably wreaked more damage than Dean,'' said insurance manager at Harnett and Richardson Mr. Roy Fellowes.

Most insurance firms initially hazarded their total damage claims came to well over $100,000.

But it will probably take several days before an accurate picture emerges.

Many more car and boat claims are expected to be made today and tomorrow as owners inspect the effects of Felix' wrath.

"Across the Island we are probably talking about over $1 million,'' Mr.

Fellowes speculated.

General manager of Colonial Insurance Mr. William Madeiros said: "Our initial ballpark figure is about $250,000.'' The worst incident reported to Colonial was damage to Ingham Brothers roof in Bakery Lane, Pembroke -- one of 18 claims made by 5 p.m., he added.

"We've had a few marine claims which were to be expected from Coney Island -- and one boat was very badly damaged after it broke away moorings in Riddells Bay.'' Mr. Madeiros said claims also stemmed from damage to cars in the long-term parking lots at the Airport.

Advance warnings about Felix had drastically slashed the damage bill, which will reach nowhere near the estimated $50 million left by Emily in 1987.

He also paid tribute to the work of Belco and Telco engineers.

A similar picture of Felix's aftermath was painted by Argus Insurance Company manager Mr. Larry Osborne.

He picked out peeling to the corrugated iron roof at The Olympic Club in Hamilton as among the worst incidents of storm damage.

"We have got one of our contractors looking at the roof, and a tarpaulin has been put up.'' Mr. Osborne added: "We have heard of nothing really serious so far ... but we are still monitoring the radio and taking calls.'' Mr. Fellowes said: "We've not had an awful lot of calls -- we've received about a dozen, and a lot of calls have come from overseas from our insurance principals who wanted to know what happened, and if everybody was all right.'' He added none of the claims had been major -- although damage off South Shore had yet to be worked out.

"So far so good.'' One of the worst affected areas was Boaz Island, said Mr. Fellowes.

"Water got in some of the condominiums down there and at Ariel Sands the porch ceilings fell down.'' Mr. Fellowes said his company would be doing "some number crunching'' in the evening to put a provisional cost on the damage.

"Off the top of my head I think we are probably talking about $100,000 worth of damage.''