huge hurricane helen and Milton They wreaked such a complex havoc that the toll is still piling up, but government and private experts say they join the ranks of notorious ultra-high-net-worth murderers, Katrina, Sandy, and Harvey, who have racked up over $50 billion. states that there is a high possibility that
What’s even more painful is that most of the damage – More than 95% for Helen – Uninsured, leaving victims in an even deeper financial hole.
Helen was an exception, but the number of deaths from storms has decreased over time. But even after adjusting for inflation, damage from severe storms is skyrocketing as people build unsafely and rebuilding costs rise faster than inflation. anthropogenic climate change Experts from various fields say storms are becoming stronger and wetter.
“Today’s storms, today’s events are very different from what happened yesterday. One of the things we’re seeing is that the amount of energy that these systems can hold is significantly greater than before. That’s it,” said John Dixon, president of Aon Edge. We are an insurance agency specializing in flood compensation. “In many cases, the weather seems to be moving faster than we as a society can keep up with.”
Over the past 45 years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has counted 396 weather disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damages, after adjusting for inflation. Of those, 63 were hurricanes or tropical cyclones.
Adam Smith, an economist and meteorologist who maintains the list at NOAA’s National Environmental Information Center in Herrenhit-Asheville, North Carolina, calls the $50 billion standard for direct losses “a truly historic event.” He said that it is a standard for distinguishing between
Only eight hurricanes met this standard. Mr Smith said he thought it was “very likely” that Mr Milton and Mr Herren would be added to that list.
The first $50 billion hurricane was Andrew in 1992. It took the United States another 13 years for Katrina to become the costliest hurricane, and then seven years for Sandy, the third costliest hurricane. Helen and Milton will now have the seventh place in the last seven years.
Calculating damages is far from an exact science. The more complex and troublesome storms, like Milton and Helen, the longer they take, Smith said. The damage is spread across many different locations, sometimes over a much wider area, with wind damage in some places and flood damage in others. Helen in particular caused widespread flooding in unfamiliar areas. Estimates of these storms by private companies in recent days have been variable and incomplete.
There are three categories of losses: insured losses, uninsured losses, and total economic costs. Many risk insurance companies only estimate insured losses.
Homeowners insurance typically covers wind damage, but not flooding. For this purpose, you will need to take out special insurance. Flood insurance coverage rates vary by region and depend on whether storms cause more wind damage or water damage. Helen had mostly water damage, which is unlikely to be covered, while Milton had quite a bit of wind damage.
Although Helen and Milton are not yet included in the list of top 10 hurricane losses compiled by insurance giant Swiss Re, insured losses account for about 44% of total costs.
But in Helen’s case, Aon’s Dixon estimated that only 5% of victims had the type of insurance they suffered. He estimated insured losses at $10 billion, which he said would put total losses in the range of $100 billion to $200 billion, which he said was a little high but within the ballpark. He said Milton’s insured losses are in the range of $50 billion to $60 billion.
Along with Herren, Swiss Re said less than 2% of households in Georgia have federal flood insurance, compared to 3% and 9% in North Carolina and South Carolina. In Buncombe County, North Carolina, where more than 57 people died in Helen River flooding, less than 1% of homes are covered by federal flood insurance, officials said.
Risk modeling by financial services conglomerate Moody’s estimates the combined damage from the two storms to be between $20 billion and $34 billion.
Cullen Clark & Company, a disaster modeling firm that uses computer simulations overlaid with storm and insurance data, won’t provide an estimate of the total damage caused by the storm. But the companies estimated insurance losses alone at $36 billion for Milton and $6.4 billion for Helen.
“Economic losses are increasing because more infrastructure and housing is at risk,” said Susan Cutter, co-director of the Hazard Vulnerability and Resilience Institute at the University of South Carolina. He added that it is also having an impact. “Human losses and deaths are decreasing because people are taking better precautions to be prepared and to stay out of harm’s way.”
Much of the damage is due to flooding. Research shows that hurricanes are humid because the combustion of coal, oil and gas builds up heat-trapping gases. Basic physics says that for every degree Fahrenheit, clouds hold 4% more water, which then falls as rain.
“There is scientific consensus that flooding and flooding from these hurricanes are becoming more frequent and severe, so storms like Helen are likely to occur more frequently in the future,” the founders said. Karen Clark said. her namesake company. “It’s not really an insurance issue because it’s not private insurance. It’s actually a social issue, it’s a political issue. How do we want to deal with this?”
Clark and some experts say it’s time for society to consider a concept called “managed retreat” in terms of where it builds, where it lives, and whether it should leave only dangerous areas alone without rebuilding. said that it was coming.
“At what point do we, as individuals, continue to build and rebuild and rebuild and rebuild instead of saying, ‘Enough is enough,'” Cutter said.
And when it comes to flood insurance, Clark said many homeowners living in risky areas don’t buy it because they feel it’s too expensive. But when the storm hit them, she said, “all of us, as taxpayers, know that federal money is going into the area to help people rebuild, so we can’t help it.” So, all taxpayers, we are actually paying for people to live in dangerous areas.”
ClimateWatch: Climate change news and features
more
more
