Berkshire's quarterly earnings hit by hurricanes

Mother Nature took a toll on Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in the third quarter. Natural disasters including Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria hit Warren Buffett’s  (pictured) insurance-focused conglomerate hard, dragging down earnings by almost $2 billion and overshadowing positive results elsewhere.
 
A surge in insurance claims led to the third consecutive quarterly underwriting loss, putting Berkshire on track to have an annual loss by that measure for the first time since 2002.
Before this year, Berkshire’s insurance businesses had posted $18 billion in underwriting income since 2002. They’d also accumulated more than $90 billion in float, the premiums that carriers