Insured losses would top $70B in an Andrew-magnitude storm: CoreLogic
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A hurricane of the magnitude of 1992’s Hurricane Andrew would cause insured losses topping $70 billion, CoreLogic Inc. said in a report Wednesday.
Modeled industry-insured losses in Florida alone would hit or exceed $70.1 billion from wind with an additional $2.7 billion in coastal flooding and storm surge losses, CoreLogic said.
Commercial losses would form the smaller component with $19.9 billion in wind losses and another $300 million from storm surge for a total of $20.2 billion, CoreLogic data showed.
Residential losses are modeled at $51.1 billion from wind and $2.4 billion from storm surge, the data showed.
Florida has the highest annual probability of a landfalling hurricane relative to any other coastal U.S. state, from Texas to Maine, with 120 landfalling hurricanes in Florida from 1940 to 2020. Only two of these were of Category 5 magnitude, but another 11 were Category 4 and 23 were Category 3, the data showed.
Historically, approximately 31% of the Florida landfalling hurricanes have been major hurricanes defined as category three or higher. “Given the historical hurricane landfall trends, it would not be surprising for Miami-Dade to see another Andrew-like event again,” CoreLogic said.
Hurricane Andrew reached hurricane status on Aug. 22, 1992, and made first U.S. landfall on August 24 at 4:40 a.m. local time as a Category 5 storm over Elliot Key on the southeastern edge of Biscayne Bay.
It was the first named storm of the 1992 Hurricane Season. A reanalysis of Hurricane Andrew concluded that maximum sustained wind speeds of 150 mph with gusts up to 170 mph tore through South Florida.
