Several more Bermuda reinsurers have said they expect to pay out millions in claims from devastating storm Hurricane Charley, which hit Florida earlier this month.

The announcements come after several other Island re/insurers said last week that they also expected to pay out millions as a result of the damage from the Category 4 (on the Saffir-Simpson scale) hurricane.

Charley is being called the second most costly storm to ever hit the US, after 1992's Andrew which caused more than $20 billion, in today's money. announced that, based on currently available information, the estimated net negative impact of losses from Hurricane Charley on the Company's results for the third quarter of 2004 is expected to be in the range of $48 million to $63 million.

CEO Anthony Taylor cautioned that the company had received only a very limited number of actual loss advices from clients so soon after the event. Accordingly the range was said to be based on industry loss estimates, output from industry and proprietary models and a review of in-force contracts. A Press statement added: "The actual impact of losses from the hurricane on the company's third quarter results might therefore vary materially from the estimate." which writes business out of Bermuda and Barbados, said its initial assessment of potential exposures and reports from its ceding companies, put its expected losses from Hurricane Charley at approximately $40 million, net of tax.

Bermuda-based said that its preliminary estimates indicated its total pre-tax net losses resulting from the impact of Hurricane Charley on its insurance and reinsurance operations will be less than $45 million. It said these estimates did not include claims incurred by the Bermuda-based companies it is invested in ? Montpelier Re or Olympus Re. said it expects to incur net losses of between $24 million and $44 million in the third quarter based on preliminary estimates of industry insured losses resulting from Hurricane Charley that range from $6 billion to $9 billion.

Arch said the estimates were developed using modelling techniques that are "inherently uncertain and, accordingly, it is possible that actual losses incurred from Hurricane Charley may vary from these estimates".