Econontersect: More than 3% of the housing units in the U.S. are at risk of damage from storm surges and tsunamis. The most significant risk for homes in coastal areas where hurricanes can make landfall is from the storm surges associated with the storm rather than the wind. The major hurricane Katrina in 2005 produced major storm surge damage along the U.S. Gulf coast and in 2012 Superstorm Sandy produced massive surges along the northeastern U.S. Atlantic coast.
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Katrina ($80 billion estimated) and Sandy ($71 billion estimated) are by far the two storms with the greatest property damage in U.S. history. However, the 2013 Storm Surge Report by CoreLogic says the exposure of property to storm surge damage is $1.1 trillion for residential property alone.
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Here are the report highlights from Corelogic:
The 2013 CoreLogic Storm Surge Report examines single-family residential structures (homes) exposed to potential hurricane-driven storm-surge damage along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts in the U.S, including an evaluation of 2012’s Hurricane Sandy. New insights within the 2013 CoreLogic Storm Surge Report include:
- An expanded overview of potential storm-surge risk that could occur in the event a one-foot, two-foot or three-foot sea-level rise
- Innovative analysis that provides a glimpse into the potential for increased risk in the event that ocean levels increase in coming years
- An explanation of the enhanced storm-surge methodology using valuations determined with CoreLogic Automated Valuation Model (AVM) data that is more geographically comprehensive than previous valuation methods
- Impact and implications of Hurricane Sandy—the largest storm of the 2012 hurricane season
Two separate top-ten lists provide an overview of major metropolitan areas ranked by total properties at risk and the total value of those properties based on CoreLogic property improvement value.
To learn more about CoreLogic Coastal Risk and Storm Surge product offerings, visit the product page on CoreLogic.com.
Sources:
- CoreLogic Storm Surge Report (Howard Botts, Wei Du, Thomas Jeffrey, Steven Kolk, Zachary Penntcook and Logan Suhr, CoreLogic, May 2013)
- American Housing Survey (AHS) (United States Census Bureau)
- Hurricane Katrina (Wikipedia)
- Hurricane Sandy (Wikipedia)
