Citizens Insurance expects Hurricane Ian losses to total more than $2 billion

The state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. on Wednesday estimated it will have $2.3 billion to $2.6 billion in losses from Hurricane Ian.

As of Wednesday morning, about 34,000 Citizens claims had been filed, but the insurer anticipates more than 225,000 claims, according to an email from Citizens spokesman Michael Peltier.

The Category 4 hurricane made landfall last week in Lee and Charlotte counties before moving across the state. Citizens, which was created as an insurer of last resort, has seen its number of policies more than double during the past two years amid financial troubles in the private insurance market. As of Friday, Citizens had 1,071,850 policies.