Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma led to a flood of paperwork at GuideOne Insurance. The West Des Moines-based company has received about 3,000 claims from policyholders for damages caused by those storms, according to Tom Farr, senior vice president of claims.

“At least half of those are homeowner and personal auto claims in Mississippi,” Farr said. Most of the rest came from Texas, and as of last week only a “couple of dozen” claims had been filed in Florida.

GuideOne specializes in church insurance, and Farr said about 1,000 churches reported damage from the storms. “In premium volume, the majority of our business is from churches,” he said. “But churches have higher premiums than homes; some churches pay a premium of $15,000 or more.”

Agents from Central Iowa have traveled to the hurricane-damaged areas to handle claims, along with GuideOne agents who live in those areas, agents from other branches and about 30 independent adjusters hired by the company.

It’s not only a big job, but the process has been slower than after past disasters. “Usually, once the skies clear, you’re in and out in two weeks at most,” Farr said. “After Katrina, we couldn’t even get into New Orleans for two weeks. In Texas, our guys had to stay in Houston, then deal with traffic and curfews, carry extra gasoline and do the same thing the next day. It has been a slow, very drawn-out affair.”

As of last week, he said, “we have paid about 70 percent of the homeowner claims. Every claim has been assigned to an adjuster, and at least 90 percent have been inspected. I’m thinking we’ll get through in another week.”

Farr wouldn’t give a total loss estimate, saying that number changes every day. However, he said GuideOne won’t be harmed financially by the unprecedented scope of hurricane damage. “We have an excellent reinsurance program, and it’s working the way it’s supposed to. Losses are unfortunate for everybody, but it’s not a problem for us except it’s wearing out some of our guys.

Des Moines-based EMC Insurance Group Inc. reported that its catastrophe and storm losses hit $14.4 million during the third quarter, a 33.5 percent leap from a year earlier. Losses caused by Katrina and Rita, including the effect of reinsurance reinstatement premiums, amounted to $9 million.

However, EMC reported net income of $8.3 million for the quarter, up from $1.9 million for the same period a year ago.

The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America has estimated 1.6 million claims have been filed as a result of Hurricane Katrina alone. According to the Insurance Services Office, insured losses due to Katrina have reached $34.4 billion. Louisiana sustained $22.6 billion in insured losses and had 900,000 claims; Mississippi’s insured losses totaled $9.8 billion; and Alabama claimants reported $1.3 billion in losses.

Standard & Poor’s covers 88 insurance and reinsurance organizations and has reported that 13 of those “might bear a disproportionately large share of estimated losses.”