Initial jobless claims remained at an elevated level last week as a result of two devastating storms in the Gulf Coast. First-time claims for unemployment benefits fell by 2,000 to 389,000 in the week ending Oct. 8, the Labor Department said Thursday. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita contributed an estimated 75,000 to last week's filings. A total of 438,000 hurricane-related jobless claims have been filed since Katrina stormed ashore on Aug. 29, an average of 73,000 extra claims for each of the six weeks since then. The four-week average fell by 8,750 to 395,750. The average number of claims before Katrina hit was 317,000. In September, U.S. nonfarm payrolls were reduced by an estimated 230,000 by the storms. The jobless claims data indicate that October payrolls could be reduced by a similar amount by the direct impact of the storms, with labor markets elsewhere in the nation relatively unaffected by the storms. Meanwhile, the number of Americans collecting jobless benefits fell by 5,000 to 2.87 million in the week ending Oct. 1. The insured unemployment rate fell by a tenth of a percentage point to 2.2%.