Oroville Dam failure poses $13bn residential real estate risk
If California’s Oroville Dam were to fail completely, 50,047 single- and multi-family residential homes could be damaged with an estimated reconstruction cost value (RCV) of $13.3 billion, according to CoreLogic, a data and analytics provider.
On February 12, authorities urged about 180,000 people to evacuate from homes below the dam a 770-foot-high embankment along Lake Oroville in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
The RCV calculated by CoreLogic reflects the cost to rebuild a property assuming 100-percent destruction. Of the at-risk homes, only 12 percent are in a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) as designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Homes with a mortgage identified as in an SFHA are required to carry flood insurance, but many homeowners do not carry flood insurance if they are not required to do so.
The majority of homes at risk are between 20 and 60 miles from the dam, totalling 33,967 properties with an estimated RCV of $9.8 billion. Additionally, there are 16,080 homes at risk of damage less than 20 miles from the dam with an estimated RCV of $3.5 billion.
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