Hurricane Ida Causes Billions in Losses for Insurance Companies

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Hurricane Ida may have incurred losses as high as $41 billion insured losses nationwide, making it one of the costliest disasters in U.S. history, Reinsurance News (RN) reports.

The second deadliest hurricane since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Ida made landfall in Louisiana on August 29.

Upon making landfall as a Category 4 storm some 60 miles south of New Orleans, Ida had a maximum sustained wind speed of 150 mph, RN noted. The hurricane caused devastating floods across the north-eastern US and left one million people without power. Ida killed 95 people in America and 20 people in Venezuela.

“Industry loss estimates for Hurricane Ida range from $30 billion to as high as $41 billion, and includes impacts in the Gulf region, the Northeast, and also losses to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP),” RN said.

In September catastrophe risk modeler RMS estimated losses in the Gulf region to range from $25 billion to $35 billion, including wind and surge losses of $21 billion to $28 billion, inland flood losses of $1 billion to $1.5 billion.

RMS estimated NFIP losses to range from $2.3 billion to $4 billion, and offshore energy losses of $700 million to $1.5 billion, RN reports. For Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast U.S. regions, RMS estimated industry losses of between $6 billion and $9 billion, most of which will impact the private flood market.

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