In the days following Hurricane Florence’s assault on the south-eastern coast of the US, some experts are already predicting $2.5 billion in insured losses. However, this wasn’t the season’s first severe storm — Lane hit Hawaii just a few weeks before and while the devastation wasn’t as significant on the island, the hurricane did outpace Florence in some metrics.
North Carolina estimated on Tuesday that 3.4 million poultry birds and 5,500 hogs died in Hurricane Florence, exceeding the number killed in the state’s last major hurricane two years ago.
From 1 to 5, the numbers we use to categorize hurricanes are ingrained in the minds of millions of Americans from Texas to Maine. But the famed 47-year-old Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, which only measures wind speed, may not be the best way to gauge a storm’s ferocity.
The head of the National Flood Insurance Program told CNBC’s "Squawk on the Street" Monday that the government is prepared to handle the anticipated rash of claims filed by homeowners in the upcoming days and weeks.
As Hurricane Florence surged toward land last week, meteorologists and emergency agencies took notice. The storm was a Category 4 hurricane, the second-strongest type, and it was drawing a bead on the Carolina coast.
The number of Americans with flood insurance is on the rise, yet Hurricane Florence is likely to make it painfully clear that too many homeowners in the Carolinas and other vulnerable regions remain unprotected.
This nightmare called Tropical Depression Florence is far from over. "Many people who think that the storm has missed them have yet to see its threat," North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said. "This system is unloading epic amounts of rainfall -- in some places measured in feet, not inches."
Deadly storm Florence moved across western North Carolina early on Monday and continued to dump rain that has nowhere to go except to swell rivers, flood highways and homes, and threaten more lives as it heads towards Virginia and New England.
Hurricane Florence is still hundreds of miles off the U.S. East Coast, but insurers are starting to see their potential costs from one type of claim mount as companies halt operations to let employees flee.
U.S. insurers are bracing for what could be $20 billion in losses as Hurricane Florence barrels toward the Carolinas and Virginia, bringing punishing rains and potentially deadly flooding.
As Hurricane Florence bears down on the southeastern United States, nearly 759,000 homes are in the storm’s path, and a worst-case rebuilding scenario could cost more than $170 billion, according to an estimate from real estate data provider CoreLogic.
As Hurricane Florence churned toward an eventual Eastern Seaboard landfall, evacuations were imposed for parts of three East Coast states Tuesday and millions of Americans prepared for what could become one of the most catastrophic hurricanes to hit the region in decades.
More than 1.5 million people were ordered to evacuate their homes along the U.S. Atlantic coast as Hurricane Florence, a Category 4 storm and the most powerful to menace the Carolinas in nearly three decades, barreled in on Tuesday.
Insured losses from the Carr and Mendocino Complex fires have reached $845 million, California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones reported Thursday, warning that these numbers — the first reported from the fires that started in July — are expected to climb as more claims are filed.
Despite increased costs of outsourcing claims adjustment, an extreme wind event this past May serves as a reminder that insurers will continue to need independent claims adjusters and brokers should be prepared to field calls from claimants.
