Ida Losses at $16 – $24 Billion in Insured, Uninsured Flood Losses in Northeast
(Hurricane Ida damage in Houma, La. Photo courtesy National Geodetic Survey.)
CoreLogic, Irvine, Calif., released additional loss estimates for Hurricane Ida, following its initial release estimating between $27 billion and $40 billion in insured and uninsured losses from wind, storm surge and inland flooding in Louisiana and Mississippi.
According to this new analysis, specifically for the U.S. Northeast, subsequent Tropical Storm Ida caused an estimated $16 billion to $24 billion in insured and uninsured inland flood losses to residential and commercial properties.
Total insured flood loss for residential and commercial properties in the U.S. Northeast is estimated to be between $5 billion and $8 billion, while uninsured flood loss for this area is estimated to be between $11 billion and $16 billion. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts sustained 90% of the losses.
“Due to the repairs made in 2012, such as strengthening buildings and infrastructure and addressing deferred maintenance, New York was less vulnerable,” said Shelly Yerkes, senior leader of insurance solutions with CoreLogic. “Tropical Storm Ida’s effects on New Yorkers would have been worse if we hadn’t conducted these resilience-based repairs after Superstorm Sandy.”
Yerkes noted, however, “Given the prevalence of multifamily housing and below-ground structures in these areas, we’ll see more extreme interior content damages than we typically see in southern coastal areas. For example, many of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in New York City buildings are in the basements, so contents damage should be substantial.”
After Hurricane Ida made landfall in Port Fourchon, La. on August 26, it continued to travel northeast as it downgraded to a tropical storm status, bringing devastating rainfall of six-to-nine inches in three hours in New York, New Jersey and surrounding states. This record-setting precipitation caused a flash flood event as the rain overwhelmed storm water drainage systems in urban areas where the average monthly rainfall is three inches and little green space exists to absorb sudden inundations of water.
In a separate report, Veros Real Estate Solutions, Irvine, Calif., estimated total market value of potentially impacted properties in the core and buffer zones hit by Ida at $95.3 billion.
Tropical Storm Ida’s flood event affected a region nearby Superstorm Sandy’s impact area in 2012, which caused extensive storm surge-related flooding along the coastlines and shorelines of the East River and the Hudson River. David Smith, senior leader of science and analytics at CoreLogic, said catastrophic weather events such as these are becoming more common and local governments and property owners are taking note, making infrastructure and home resilience improvements in the wake of the recent storms.
“The flooding from Superstorm Sandy was more severe than Tropical Storm Ida,” Smith said. “Due to the repairs made in 2012, such as strengthening buildings and infrastructure and addressing deferred maintenance, New York was less vulnerable. Tropical Storm Ida’s effects on New Yorkers would have been worse if we hadn’t conducted these resilience-based repairs after Superstorm Sandy.”
This analysis includes residential homes and commercial properties, including contents and business interruption and does not include broader economic loss from the storm.
