Mississippi Commissioner of Insurance George Dale announced that, as of Monday, insurance companies have paid out over $5 billion in hurricane related claims for Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.

Over $3.6 billion of that is for Hurricane Katrina claims, $1.3 billion in flood insurance claims, with claims paid for Hurricane Rita over $6 million.

The approximate total for claims now stands at $5,003,909,300. Those numbers continue to rise.

As of Monday, there have been approximately 380,000 claims filed on Hurricane Katrina and over 3,700 claims filed on Hurricane Rita.

In the three hardest hit coastal counties, over 141,000 claims have been filed, with over $1.3 billion paid in claims in those counties alone. In Jackson County there have been over 44,000 claims filed and over $310 million in claims paid.

In Hancock County there have been over 24, 000 claims filed and over $216 million in claims paid. In Harrison County there have been over 72,000 claims filed and over $774 million in claims paid. These figures do not include flood claims.

Dale said he believes the National Flood Insurance Program's recent suspension of claims payments due to running out of borrowing authority caused some delays. But he said he's confident now that Congress voted Nov. 18 to increase the NFIP's borrowing authority, companies will begin paying claims again this week.

The call center for the Mississippi Department of insurance is open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for consumers to call for Hurricane Katrina insurance assistance. The numbers are: State 1-800-562-2957; Out-of-State - 1-866-856-1982.

Numbers listed above were supplied by the Mississippi Department of Insurance.