AIR Expands ALERT to Include Japanese Typhoons and Hawaii Tropical Cyclones.

Business/Technology/Environmental Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 27, 2000

AIR announced today that the AIR Loss Estimates in Real Time (ALERT) Web site has been expanded to cover Northwest Pacific typhoons affecting Japan and tropical cyclones affecting Hawaii. During this hurricane season, ALERT will provide probabilistic loss estimates for Japan and Hawaii up to two days before landfall.

"The expansion of ALERT is very timely," said Dr. John Keller, Senior AIR Meteorologist, "because experts are predicting an active typhoon season in the Northwest Pacific, which means that Japan could be hit by several storms this year."

AIR's ALERT Web site was launched in 1998 to provide probabilistic hurricane loss estimates for the Gulf and East Coasts of the U.S. For the first time, insurers and reinsurers could access real time catastrophe loss estimates over the Internet. During that first season, ALERT received more than 7,000 hits over the ten days AIR meteorologists tracked Hurricane Georges. In 1999, ALERT was expanded to include European extratropical cyclones. Web-based real time loss estimates were issued for Anatol, Lothar and Martine, the series of winterstorms that caused unprecedented damage in parts of France and Germany in December and early January.

"As our clients' portfolios have expanded geographically, so has their need for real-time event information. AIR is very pleased to offer companies the only probabilistic loss estimates available in real time for the Central and Northwest Pacific," said Karen M. Clark, President and CEO of AIR.

ALERT is available to all AIR clients, free of charge. The Web address is air-worldwide.com/alert.

AIR is the technological leader in the provision of catastrophe modeling services and software solutions to the insurance, reinsurance and capital markets. AIR's models simulate losses from natural catastrophes such as hurricanes, hail, tornadoes, straight-line windstorms, flood and earthquakes in over 23 countries. Offices are located in Boston, London, Seattle and Miami. The company's Web address is www.air-worldwide.com.