Property insurer Chubb Corp. Wednesday warned it would report up to $475 million in pretax catastrophe losses in the third quarter, most of it coming from late August’s Hurricane Irene.

Chubb said $300 million to $375 million of the $400 million to $475 million in total losses came from Irene, which caused severe flooding and wind damage from the Carolinas all the way up to Vermont last month.

During Hurricane Irene and the aftermath, Chief Vincent Caruso of the Lodi, New Jersey Police Department, found what many emergency management and law enforcement organizations are discovering: social media are a great avenue for the dissemination of information in a crisis. Lodi is a smallish town with a population of about 24,000, but is located in the pretty densely populated area near Hackensack, NJ. I had an opportunity to chat with the Chief today regarding his experiences during Irene, and I think it is pretty typical of what we are finding with other public safety institutions.

Kim Stephens @ idisaster 2.0

Changes both large and small will be made to the way New York City responds to hurricane emergencies in the future, including how evacuations will be publicized and executed, after officials learned valuable lessons from the unprecedented emptying of the waterfront as Tropical Storm Irene bore down on the five boroughs.

Next time, a neighborhood on Staten Island that was not evacuated may well be. The Housing Authority will make accommodations for pets. The city’s Web site will be stripped to the news-you-can-use essentials in emergencies.

The Police Department will use an existing cadre of officers who are also qualified as bus drivers to carry out a prearranged set of assignments, so 911 operators can be driven to their office in a transit shutdown. Consolidated Edison wants to move building transformers or make them submersible. Health agencies will look at how to avoid running out of ambulances, vans and beds for patients.