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Global property information, analytics and data-enabled services provider CoreLogic, Inc. recently released its 2015 Storm Surge Analysis which found that more than 6.6 million homes on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are at risk of hurricane storm surge damage. The total reconstruction cost value (RCV) is nearly $1.5 trillion for the storm surge damages.
“The number of hurricanes each year is less important than the location of where the next hurricane will come ashore,” said Dr. Tom Jeffery, senior hazard risk scientist for CoreLogic. “It only takes one hurricane that pushes storm surge into a major metropolitan area for the damage to tally in the billions of dollars. With new home construction, and any amount of sea-level rise, the number of homes at risk of storm surge damage will continue to increase.”
The CoreLogic analysis reviews homes along the Atlantic and Gulf coastlines of 19 states and the District of Columbia, as well as 84 metro areas by examining the risk from hurricane-driven storm surge. Home are placed in five risk levels, including low, moderate, high, very high and extreme, according to CoreLogic. The analysis also provides RCVs that indicate how much is required to rebuild the property, including labor and materials, and assuming that the homes are completely destroyed.
According to the analysis, at the regional level, the Atlantic Coast has more than 3.8 million homes at risk of storm surge in 2015 with an RCV of $939 billion, and the Gulf Coast has just under 2.8 million homes at risk and nearly $549 billion in potential exposure to total destruction damage.
A total of six states make up more than 75 percent of all at-risk homes nationally, CoreLogic says. Florida finished first with 2,509,812 total properties at various risk levels. Next is Louisiana with 760,272 homes and New York with 464,534 homes. New Jersey come in fourth with 446,148 properties and Texas in fifth at 441,304 properties, while Virginia wrapped up the ranking with 420,052 properties. Although Louisiana finished with the second most homes at risk of storm surge, only 25 percent of these homes are in the extreme or very high storm surge category due to upgraded and expanded levees.
“The levee system in and around New Orleans is one of the most extensive in the world,” Jeffery said. “After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, upgrades were planned for the network of levees and pumping stations to reduce the potential devastation from future storms. Upgrades were completed in 2013, and CoreLogic analysis shows a significant number of homes are now protected from all but the higher category hurricanes as a result.”
Click here to view the full CoreLogic Storm Surge Analysis.
