Hurricane Ida’s northeast insured losses could reach $8bn, says CoreLogic

Commercial insured flood and wind losses in the US northeast from Hurricane Ida are estimated at between $3bn and $5bn, with total claims of up to $8bn, according to CoreLogic.

The California-based catastrophe modeller said total insured flood losses for both residential and commercial properties in the northeast would be between $5bn and $8bn, while uninsured flood losses for the area are estimated at between $11bn and $16bn.

Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts sustained 90% of the losses, CoreLogic said.

Ida continued to travel northeast after it made landfall in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, on 26 August. Downgraded to tropical-storm status, it brought rainfall of six to nine inches in three hours to New York, New Jersey and surrounding states.

The record-setting precipitation caused flash flooding as the rain overwhelmed stormwater drainage systems in urban areas.

David Smith, senior leader of science and analytics at CoreLogic, said Ida’s effects on New York would have been worse if not for resilience-based repairs made after Superstorm Sandy that helped buttress against more severe damages.

CoreLogic previously estimated insured flood and wind losses from Hurricane Ida at between $14bn and $21bn.

The firm estimated that insured flood losses for residential and commercial properties in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama would be between $6bn and $9bn. This included both storm surge and inland flooding. Insured wind losses were estimated at $8bn to $12bn.

Earlier this week, RMS estimated that insured onshore and offshore losses in the Gulf of Mexico from Hurricane Ida will be between $25bn and $35bn, including up to $4bn for the US National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

The number is higher than earlier estimates, but includes wider perils and damages covering wind, storm surge and inland flooding across the impacted US states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi. It excludes wind and inland flooding impacts in the Ohio Valley, mid-Atlantic and northeast US regions, which will be announced in the coming days once the full extent of damage is known.

The RMS estimate is broken down into insured losses of $21bn-$28bn for wind and storm surge. The inland flood loss estimate is between $1bn and $1.5bn, and the NFIP loss to Gulf states alone is $2.3bn to $4bn. Offshore energy losses are estimated to range between $0.7bn and $1.5bn.