Private re/insurance market insured Hurricane Harvey losses for wind, storm surge and inland flood damage across Texas and Louisiana are estimated to reach about $18-25 billion, according to RMS.
The risk modeller estimated total insured losses, including the government’s National Flood Insurance Programme (NFIP), at $25 to $35 billion, with an upper bound of $40 billion, roughly half the estimated economic losses of $70 to $90 billion.
Photo from the Guardian
Michael Young, head of U.S. climates modeling at RMS, said; “The behavior of the storm is almost without precedent, and Harvey has already broken all U.S. records for tropical cyclone-driven extreme rainfall.
“Harvey’s observed cumulative rainfall of 51in (129cm) far exceeds that of Allison in 200, Claudette in 1979, or Amelia in 1978, not only in volume but also regional extent,” said Young.
Damage from rainfall-driven flooding will drive total economic and insured losses beyond those of 2012’s Superstorm Sandy’s.
“Although Harvey was a category four storm at landfall, the point of landfall along the coastline of Texas is less densely populated than other coastline areas, which has limited the magnitude of the overall total wind and surge related losses,” said Young.
Hurricane Harvey caused record-level inland flooding across southeast Texas and parts of southern Louisiana.
The Houston metropolitan area was heavily impacted with flood depths reaching up to 12 feet.
“The behavior of the storm is almost without precedent, and Harvey has already broken all U.S. records for tropical cyclone-driven extreme rainfall.
“Harvey’s observed cumulative rainfall of 51in (129cm) far exceeds that of Allison in 200, Claudette in 1979, or Amelia in 1978, not only in volume but also regional extent,” Young commented.
RMS used the U.S. Inland Flood HD Model in real-time to simulate the precipitation, run-off, and pluvial and fluvial flows across Texas and Louisiana and reconstructed Harvey’s wind field and storm surge, using version 17.0 of the RMS North Atlantic Hurricane Models and RMS U.S. Inland Flood Model.
