Insurance Industry Needs A Fast Forward Perspective On Hurricanes

A recent Risk Perspective blog from Swiss Re’s Mohit Pande has outlined the hurricane risks that the industry and economy currently face.

According to CoreLogic, nearly 33 million homes on or near the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are at risk of hurricane-force wind damage, the estimated cost to replace them is $10.5 trillion.

The impact of secondary perils like flooding continues to grow as well, says Pande, as it would cost more than $2.3 trillion to replace the estimated 7.8 million homes that are vulnerable to storm surges.

The blog notes many of those homes are uninsured or underinsured, and this protection gap grows larger as storms become more extreme.

By failing to make enough use of the forward-looking elements in modelling, the industry would only exacerbate the problem, says Pande.