The East Coast felt the wrath of Hurricane Sandy as it has caused more losses than last year's Hurricane Irene.

Catastrophe forecasting companies said on Tuesday that the final totals will be hard to determine for some time because of the scale of the disaster.

The super storm left millions without power, caused widespread flooding that is predicted to shut New York City's subway system for days, and killed potentially dozens of people that were in the path of the hybrid storm.

RMS, one of the three primary firms used by the insurance company industry to calculate disaster exposures, said that Sandy should outdo the roughly $4.5 billion in insured losses Irene caused after hitting the northeast in August 2011.

In a report early Tuesday, RMS said "Sandy event is much more severe ... and has impacted NYC to a much worst degree than Irene."

The industry's assessment follows that of peer Eqecat, which said late Monday that Sandy was likely to cause anywhere from $5 billion to $10 billion in insured losses and from $10 billion to $20 billion in economic losses.

If Eqecat numbers are accurate, Sandy would rank as the fifth-worst hurricane in U.S. history, based on inflation-adjusted losses, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

A better outlook on the situation should emerge in the days ahead as insurers get their teams into the most affected area and begin making assessments.

Allstate reported that it had more than 1,100 claims staff staged and ready to go once the storm has passed.

Eqecat and its partners are likely to determine their estimates as well. AIR Worldwide, the other large disaster modeler, is due to release its own initial estimate over the next day.

Many financial analysts expect that an insured loss of even $10 billion would have little effect on the insurance and reinsurance industries.

Shares in U.S. insurers will not trade again Tuesday, because of the ongoing market closure.