Insured Losses Top $5B With Heavy Flooding but Few Covered by Flood Insurance

By | September 30, 2024

Estimates of insured losses from Hurricane Helene continue to range around $5 billion, not including flood insurance losses, as the death toll in the Southeast continued to rise, reaching 107 by Monday morning.

In Florida, the state Office of Insurance Regulation reported almost 40,000 property insurance claims had already been filed by Sunday. Total estimated insured losses have topped $435 million. Those numbers are expected to rise, but thousands of claims may turn out to be mostly damage from flooding, limiting exposure for Florida property insurers.

“This is a manageable event for Florida’s property insurance industry,” former Florida deputy insurance commissioner Lisa Miller told Fox 13 TV news.

The Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

A.M. Best estimated that insured losses will be about $5 billion, similar to early estimates released by Gallagher Re, CoreLogic and others.

“Primary insurers underwriting property coverage will likely bear the brunt of those insured losses, given the recent trend by reinsurers to impose higher attachment points on that coverage,” A.M. Best’s Chris Draghi said in a bulletin. “This hurricane could also be a key financial test for Florida property-catastrophe specialist writers, some of which are thinly capitalized.”

The Southeastern U.S. began a huge cleanup and recovery effort on Sunday and the death toll climbed after Helene knocked out power for millions, destroyed roads and bridges and caused dramatic flooding from Florida to Virginia, Reuters new service and others reported.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Floodwaters pushed by the remnants of Hurricane Helene left North Carolina’s largest mountain city isolated Saturday by damaged roads and a lack of power and cellphone service, part of a swath of destruction across southern Appalachia that left an unknown number dead and countless worried relatives unable to reach loved ones. The storm spread misery across western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, where on Friday authorities used a helicopter to rescue dozens of people from the rooftop of a flooded hospital. In North Carolina alone, more than 400 roads remained closed on Saturday as floodwaters began to recede and reveal the extent of damage. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said supplies were being airlifted to that part of the state. Buncombe County officials said Interstate 26 between Asheville and South Carolina had reopened, but most other routes into the city were impassible. Among those rescued from rising waters was nurse Janetta Barfield, whose car was swamped on Friday morning as she left an overnight shift at Asheville’s Mission Hospital. She said she watched a car in front of her drive through standing water and thought it was safe to proceed. But her car stalled, and within minutes water had filled her front seat up to her chest. A nearby police officer helped her to safety. “It was unbelievable how fast that creek got just in like five minutes,” Barfield said. Early Saturday morning, many gas stations were closed because they didn’t have electricity, and the few that were open had hourlong lines wrapped around the block. Where traffic lights were dark, drivers treated the intersections as four-way stops. The hub of tourism and arts, home to about 94,000 people, was unusually still after floodwaters swamped neighborhoods known for drawing visitors including Biltmore Village and the River Arts District, which is home to numerous galleries, shops and breweries. More than 700,000 customers were without power across North Carolina, including about 100,000 in Buncombe County. In Asheville, there was no cellular service and no timeline for restoration. Residents were also directed to boil their water. Local officials said they were working on setting up hubs to distribute food and water. “We have had some loss of life,” County Emergency Services Director Van Taylor Jones told reporters. However, he said they were not ready to report specifics as they were hindered in contacting next of kin by the communications outages. Police Chief Michael Lamb said his department had a list of about 60 people who relatives had not been able to reach and were seeking welfare checks. As of Saturday night, the governor’s office confirmed 10 storm deaths statewide but did not provide a breakdown of where they occurred. Officials said they tried to prepare for the storm but its magnitude was beyond what they could have imagined. “It’s not that we (were) not prepared, but this is going to another level,” Sheriff Quentin Miller said. “To say this caught us off guard would be an understatement.” Atlanta resident Francine Cavanaugh said she has been unable to reach her sister, son or friends in the Asheville area. “My sister checked in with me yesterday morning to find out how I was in Atlanta,” she said on Saturday. “The storm was just hitting her in Asheville, and she said it sounded really scary outside.”

The storm’s winds, rain and storm surge killed at least 90 people in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia, according to a Reuters tally of state and local officials.

Officials feared more bodies would be discovered in the next few days.

Business interruption claims are likely to mount across the region, as floodwaters and road washouts shut down enterprises and cellphone service was non-existent in some areas. The city of Asheville, North Carolina, home of a thriving tourist industry, was heavily flooded and left completely isolated. State officials set up airlifts to bring food and water to residents on Sunday.

“Grocery stores are closed, cellphone service is out,” Chip Frank, 62, said as he entered his third hour waiting in line, according to Reuters. “It all depends on these gas stations. You’re not going to be able to go nowhere, and it’s just a scary feeling.”

The North Carolina Department of Transportation has restricted any travel in the western part of the state.

“This is a devastating catastrophe of historic proportions,” Gov. Roy Cooper told CNN. “People that I talk to in western North Carolina say they have never seen anything like this.”

The extreme water levels caught many off guard. Most losses from flooding in the area will not be covered by insurance.

“Public and private flood policy take-up rates are minimal in the mountainous regions of the Southeast and will predominantly be the responsibility of the property owner,” Guy Carpenter, the global risk and reinsurance firm, said Monday.

Region-wide, total economic losses, aside from insured losses, could reach as high as $110 billion, AccuWeather noted. Moody’s Analytics pegged total losses at no more than $34 billion.

On the west coast of Florida, where heavy storm surge swamped hundreds of homes, mortgage companies may ultimately raise requirements for more flood insurance, Guy Carpenter noted. “Wind insurers may bear expense to adjust water claims with zero ultimate payment.”

A number of fires broke out in Tampa, destroying some homes that also faced damage from storm surge and wind-driven rain.

In storm-plagued Horseshoe Beach, on Florida’s Gulf Coast about 70 miles (120 km) west of Gainesville, Charlene Huggins surveyed the debris of her blown-out house, pulling a jacket out of the rubble on Saturday, Reuters reported.

“Five generations lived in this house, from my grandmother, my father, myself, my daughter, son and my granddaughter,” Huggins said, holding a chipped glass cake stand. “So there’s a lot of memories here. It just breaks your heart.”

Not far away, James Ellenburg stood on the property where his own family has lived for four generations. “I took my first step right here in this yard.”

The roof of one home sat flat in the dirt, its walls blown away.

In coastal Steinhatchee, a storm surge of eight to 10 feet (2.4 to 3 meters) moved mobile homes, the weather service said.

“I’ve never seen so many people homeless as what I have right now,” said Janalea England, of Steinhatchee, a small river town along the state’s rural Big Bend. She turned her commercial fish market into a storm donation site for friends and neighbors, many of whom couldn’t get insurance on their homes, the Associated Press reported.

Other areas saw a storm surge of 15 feet (4.5 meters).

In the nearby tiny community of Spring Warrior Fish Camp, people were surveying the damage on Saturday and still waiting for emergency or first responder aid.

“No one thinks of us back here,” said David Hall, as he and his wife dug through seagrass and dead fish in the office of the hotel they owned. Many of the community’s homes are built on stilts because of a local ordinance and survived heavy damage.

Kristin Macqueen was helping friends clean up after their house was destroyed in nearby Keaton Beach. “It’s complete devastation,” she said. “Houses have just been ripped off their slabs.”

East Tennessee also endured extensive flooding, and a dam was near collapse over the weekend. Water levels behind the Nolichucky Dam near Morristown began to recede, but not until after downstream residents were evacuated.

Top photo: Emergency personnel watch floodwaters rise in Asheville on Friday. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)

Topics Profit Loss Flood

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