Hurricane Isaias insured losses likely to top $1 billion: Aon
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Insured losses from Hurricane Isaias are expected to top $1 billion, according to a report Friday from Aon PLC.
Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, on Aug. 3 with maximum sustained winds of 85 miles per hour, equal to a Category 1 hurricane, the weekly cat report from Aon’s Impact Forecasting unit said.
“Significant impacts were experienced along a large portion of the eastern seaboard, including historic storm surge, hurricane-force wind gusts, flooding rainfall, and damaging tornadoes,” Aon said in the report.
At least 6.4 million customers lost power at the peak of the storm on the U.S. mainland.
Total economic losses and insured losses were each individually expected to “surpass $1 billion,” Aon said.
After landfall, Isaias accelerated northward toward the mid-Atlantic where its interaction with a strong jet-stream minimized weakening and helped produce enhanced sustained winds, Aon said.
Hurricane-force gusts were seen along with notable coastal storm surge, damaging tornadoes, and widespread flooding rainfall on Aug. 4.
Isaias progressed rapidly north-northeastward at 40 miles per hour, bringing wind gusts of over 70 miles per hour to portions of eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, Aon said.
By the evening of Aug. 4, Isaias was moving over New England and was designated post-tropical on Aug. 5.
Isaias, which followed Hurricane Hanna’s landfall nine days earlier in South Texas, becomes the fifth named storm of the 2020 season to make landfall in the U.S.
This is the earliest this has happened in modern history, Aon said. Earlier this week, forecasters upgraded their forecasts and predicted an “extremely active” hurricane season.
