CoreLogic Reports 3rd Straight Year of ‘Catastrophic’ Activity

Catastrophic activity– hurricanes, wildfires, flooding and other natural catastrophes-occurred at an above-average level for the third straight year in 2018, said CoreLogic, Irvine, Calif.

The company’s annual National Hazard report cited 11 events causing losses of $11 billion or more in 2018, ranging from wildfires in nearly a dozen Western states; Hurricanes Florence and Michael, which caused widespread damages in the Carolinas and the Southeast; and several “thousand-year floods in several parts of the U.S.

“2018 was an eventful year worldwide,” the report said. “No one can stop a hurricane in its tracks or steady the ground from an earthquake, but with more information and an understanding of the risk, recovery can be accelerated and resiliency can be attained.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported 11 weather and climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion in the U.S. in 2018. Although last year’s count of billion-dollar events is a decrease from the previous year, both 2017 and 2018 have tracked far above the 1980-2017 annual average of $6 billion events.

The report bullets several key findings, including insured and uninsured losses on the leading catastrophes:

–Floods: In 2018, CoreLogic reported 1,600 significant flood events that occurred in the U.S., 59 percent of which were flash flood-related. [Thousand-year] flood events (or floods that are said statistically to have a 1 in 1,000 chance of occurring) took place in Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin once again, the report said. “Severe convective storms pelted Dallas, Texas and Colorado Springs, Colorado, with large hail while a rash of tornado outbreaks, spawning 82 tornadoes in total, occurred from Western Louisiana and Arkansas all the way down to Southern Florida and up to Western Virginia.

“Much like 2016, last year’s count of 1,000-year flood events was high,” the report said. “This level of flooding in recent years has become almost commonplace, occurring in the same spots repeatedly.”

–Wildfires: Corelogic said acreage burned by wildfires in 2018 represented the 8th highest in U.S. history. Eleven western states had at least one wildfire that exceeded 50,000 burned acres; the leading states were California and Oregon, each with seven fires that burned more than 50,000 acres, including the Camp and Woolsey fires in California that killed nearly 100 people.

–Hurricanes: The 2018 Atlantic Hurricane season saw 15 named storms, eight of which were named hurricanes. Two of these, Hurricanes Florence (Cat 1) and Michael (Cat 4), made landfall along the U.S. This made 2018 the third back-to-back season of above-average hurricane activity in the Atlantic.

At its most powerful, Hurricane Florence was a Category 4 storm. It eventually made landfall as a strong yet slow-moving Category 1 hurricane off the coast of North Carolina on Sept. 14 with wind gusts up to 105 mph. It caused significant damage in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

“In these states, approximately 700,000 residential and commercial properties experienced catastrophic flooding and wind damage,” CoreLogic said.

Additionally, the report noted worldwide, typhoons and cyclones devastated the Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan and Oman; earthquakes caused mass casualties in Indonesia, business interruption in Japan and structure damage in Alaska. Volcanoes made the news in Hawaii, expanding the island’s terrain.

The report can be accessed at https://www.corelogic.com/insights-download/natural-hazard-risk-summary-and-analysis.aspx.