Insured losses from Hurricane Ida to be around $25 billion
Catastrophe risk solutions company RMS has estimated that onshore and offshore insured losses from Hurricane Ida in the Gulf of Mexico will be between US$25 and $35 billion
This estimate includes wind, storm surge, and inland flood losses across only the impacted Gulf states in the landfall region — Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi — based on analysis of RMS ensemble footprints in Version 21 of the RMS North Atlantic Hurricane Models.
Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, on Sunday, August 29 as a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. At landfall, Ida produced sustained winds of 150 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center.
A multi-faceted event in terms of loss impacts
Jeff Waters, Senior Product Manager at RMS North Atlantic Hurricane Models, said: “Ida was truly a multi-faceted event in terms of hazard and loss impacts. RMS virtual reconnaissance efforts and analysis of aerial imagery show widespread wind and water-related damage in Louisiana and neighbouring Gulf Coast states, including many severe or total structural losses.”
Losses reflect property damage and business interruption to residential, commercial, and other speciality lines of business, along with post-event loss amplification and non-modelled sources of loss.
Mohsen Rahnama, Chief Risk Modeling Officer at RMS, said: “Due to major damage to power plants, as well as transmission and distribution lines, the widespread power outage will significantly delay full recovery. With prolonged anticipated recovery times, we expect material business interruption losses to these lines on top of varying degrees of infrastructure damage they sustained.”
RMS expects insured wind losses in this event to be driven by residential lines, and insured water-related losses to be dominated by commercial and industrial lines.