Hurricane Ida, which hit Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane before recently pushing its way to the Northeast as a tropical storm, has caused an immense amount of damage. But how much will result in insured and uninsured losses? According to a new CoreLogic report, due to Hurricane Ida’s devastating winds, storm surge and flooding, we can expect damages to residential and commercial properties in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to total $27-$40B.
The findings:
– Total insured flood loss for residential and commercial properties in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama may be around $6 billion and $9 billion—including both storm surge and inland flooding.
– Uninsured flood loss for this area is estimated to be between $8 billion and $12 billion.
– Insured wind losses may be an additional $8 billion to $12 billion.
– More than 90% of the losses will likely be in Louisiana, primarily in the nine parishes in the New Orleans-Metairie-Hammond metropolitan area and in the Ascension, Lafourche, Livingston and Terrebonne parishes immediately to the west.
“Hurricane Ida made landfall less than 40 miles away from where Hurricane Katrina made landfall, but the two storms had substantially different characteristics,” said Tom Larsen, principal, insurance solutions at CoreLogic. “Even though Hurricane Ida was a higher wind-speed Category storm at landfall, Hurricane Katrina had a much larger wind field and had spent many hours as a Category 5 hurricane before weakening during its approach to landfall. It brought much higher storm surge than Hurricane Ida and flooded 80% of New Orleans in addition to devastating the Mississippi coast. With climate change affecting the ocean’s temperatures, we should expect to see more frequent and destructive tropical cyclone activity. Homeowners and regional public agency leaders should prepare for more resilient city infrastructure and financial protection from catastrophe.”
You can read the full report here.
