Factors Contributing To Flood Risk: A Comparison Of Hurricanes Lane And Florence

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. “One thing in common between the two hurricane events is that they produced a huge amount of rainfall within their affected inland areas. Hurricane Lane produced about 52 inches of rainfall in some areas in the Hawaiian islands, and Hurricane Florence dumped over 30 inches of rainfall on the North Carolina coast,” said Wei Du, principal scientist at CoreLogic.