Hurricane Michael losses expected at up to $4.5bn

Hurricane Michael made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane along the Florida Panhandle coast yesterday (Oct. 10) and is expected to have caused damage from wind and storm surge in the range of $2 billion to $4.5 billion, according to CoreLogic estimates.

The total loss estimate is broken down into $1.5 billion-$3 billion residential losses and $0.5 billion-$1.5 billion commercial losses. The estimates are based on the pre-landfall forecast.

According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the maximum sustained winds of hurricane Michael were at 155mph, 2mph short from becoming a category 5 storm. Michael is the strongest hurricane to hit the Florida Panhandle since 1900 and the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the US since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, CoreLogic noted.

Storm surge damage can be expected from Mobile, AL to Tampa, FL, with the maximum storm surge anticipated to be east of Panama City to coastal cities south of Tallahassee, CoreLogic said.

As Michael is a fast-moving storm it does not have the same amount of rainfall associated with it as experienced with Florence or Harvey. This is not anticipated to be a large inland flooding event, but there will be localized areas of flooding, CoreLogic noted.

Get all the latest re/insurance industry news with our daily newsletter -  sign up here.

More of today's news

Catalina raises $700m additional capital from Apollo

Hiscox appoints CFO for reinsurance, ILS

Lloyd’s commits to honouring claims in no-deal Brexit

Reinsurers on the hook for hurricane Michael losses

CCRIF to makes first payout to Barbados in 2018/19 policy year

Newly merged SSL Endeavour boosts property team with Aon hire

Don't miss our insurtech email newsletter - sign up today