Insured losses from Hurricane Lowell are estimated at $0.5 billion to $1.0 billion, with most of the damage expected on Kauai, according to insight by Cotality.

Hurricane Lowell passed just west of Niihau overnight as a Category 2 hurricane, bringing hurricane-force gusts, flooding rain, and destructive surf to Kauai County in the closest approach by a Category 2 or stronger hurricane to Kauai since Iniki in 1992, the data insight firm said.

According to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center, Lowell’s center was located about 90 miles west of Lihue and 190 miles west-northwest of Honolulu at 11 p.m. HST on Sept. 7, with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph and a minimum central pressure of 963 mb.

The hurricane was moving north-northeast at 18 mph, and hurricane-force winds extended up to 70 miles from the center, placing Niihau and western Kauai inside the hurricane-force wind field. Barking Sands on western Kauai reported a gust to 84 mph and Lihue Airport a gust to 79 mph.

Lowell peaked as a Category 5 hurricane with 160 mph winds on Sept. 2 while still more than 400 miles south of Hilo. Vertical wind shear from an upper-level trough steadily eroded the storm’s core as it turned north toward the islands, and by early Sept. 8 the hurricane center had lowered its intensity to 90 mph, a Category 1.

Because the strongest winds passed west of the island, it is less likely insurers will see structural wind damage. Roof and envelope damage from gusts accelerated over Kauai’s terrain, rainfall-driven flooding in the island’s steep valleys, and wave and surge damage along the south and west shores is more likely.

Hawaii’s insurance market still carries the imprint of Iniki, which struck Kauai as a Category 4 hurricane and remains the costliest hurricane in the state’s history, the Cotality alert stated.

Hurricane wind coverage is typically a separate policy or endorsement from standard homeowners insurance, and flood losses fall to National Flood Insurance Program or private flood policies, so a multi-peril event like Lowell will test coverage boundaries across wind, flood, and business interruption.

Lowell is the second tropical cyclone to threaten Hawaii in three weeks, following Tropical Storm Lala’s impact on the Big Island in mid-August, and the fifth hurricane or tropical storm to menace the state in three months.