P. M. BRIEFING : Too Early for Estimates: Lloyd’s

The head of Lloyd’s of London, the world’s biggest insurance organization, said today it was too early to tell how much the Northern California earthquake would cost its underwriters.

“There are some wild figures being quoted in London, from low to high,” Murray Lawrence told a news conference in Paris. “I don’t think there’s any real conception of the total damage.”

Insurers at the scene have estimated property damage at $3 billion to $4 billion but the figure was expected to rise as fuller damage reports were compiled.

Lawrence said much of the damage was to uninsured properties and installations. Fisherman’s Wharf, where buildings were generally of low value, suffered heavy damage.

“A lot of these buildings are going to take a lot of inspection,” Lawrence said. “They may look all right but some of them may have been damaged in such a way that it’s difficult to estimate it at first sight.”