The Association of British Insurers says it’s too early to give figures on insured loss from the Hurricane strength winds that battered Britain and the Netherlands today.

A storm that hit Britain in 1987 storm caused 2.2 billion pounds of damage in today’s terms (1 billion in 1987 money).

The last comparable storm to today’s was in 2002, a Met Office spokesman said.

“The issue for us will be flooding more than the wind and it will become clearer this afternoon,” Philip Moore, group finance director at LV, which insures more than 500,000 homes in Britain, said. “So far it is not as bad as ‘87.”

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has warned that the storm, named St Jude which reached the south of the UK last night and continued into this morning, will hit insurers due to the high density of properties in affected areas, Insurance Age reported.

Mohammad Khan, insurance partner at PwC commented: “The UK insurance sector will pick up most of the bill from the damage caused by the storm that threatens the south of the UK.

“The storm is hitting the largest exposure in insurers books — where the density of properties is highest and where buildings are the least tested to high wind speeds.”

Gusts of up to 99mph (160kph) lashed southern England and Wales in the worst storm recorded in Britain in a decade.

The storm killed five people, cut power and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights and train journeys in the UK.

Northern Europe was preparing for the impact.