"2006 was only a respite," said Robert Hartwig, chief economist of the Insurance Information Institute. "The trend is for more hurricane activity, not less."

Insurers are awaiting a first look at the 2007 season, which starts June 1 and ends Nov. 30, from Colorado State University hurricane forecaster Dr. William Gray and his team on Dec. 8. The Climate Prediction Center of the US government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is due to give its end-of-season report on Nov. 30.

Forecasters were wrong in 2006, unanimously predicting an above-average season for hurricanes based on warmer-than-usual Atlantic waters that often fuel hurricanes.

But wind patterns and dust storms in the Sahara squelched tropical disturbances before they started, forecasters said. As a result, there were only nine storms that got names this year. That compares with 28 in 2005, including the trio of Katrina, Rita and Wilma that caused more than US$100 billion in losses.

One season does not set a trend, however. "Yes, we got off easy, but our expectation is that 2007 will be another tough year," said Robert Blumber, a managing director in Marsh Inc.'s global property group, a unit of Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc., the world's largest insurance brokerage firm.

Insurance premiums for catastrophe-exposed areas such as Florida have gone up by 50 percent to 100 percent in some areas. Deductibles, the amount an insured pays before coverage kicks in, have risen to 5 percent from 2 percent in past years, Blumber said.

This has as much to do with growth in storm-ridden areas as the weather itself, according to companies who predict what future catastrophe losses could look like.

"Florida's population is growing by 2 percent a year," said Tom Larsen, a vice president with Eqecat Inc. As a result, the disaster modeler sees the loss potential in the Sunshine State doubling every 15 to 20 years.