Karen Clark & Company Introduces New U.S. Storm Surge Model

Karen Clark & Company (KCC) announced the release of its detailed, high resolution storm surge model for the U.S. Based on the latest science on storm surge flooding and high resolution elevation data, the model can be used for individual risk underwriting, ratemaking, and portfolio management.

The new storm surge model has several important advantages over other available models. Because it’s part of the RiskInsight open loss modeling platform, the model components are fully transparent. This means clients can see all of the high resolution footprints and easily identify locations vulnerable to storm surge flooding. Insurers can calculate the amount of TIV they have exposed by water depth and apply detailed vulnerability curves to estimate losses.

Insurers can estimate their portfolio losses with and without storm surge, for any leakage assumption, and for storm surge separately. Average annual losses can be accessed for individual properties via web services hosted by KCC or client companies.

Along with enabling insurers to estimate their losses from storm surge, the model produces the 100 and 250 year flood zones along the coast. Via a KCC or client-hosted web service, the locations of individual policies can be tested to see if they’re in or out of the flood zones before the policies are written. This enables insurers to closely monitor and control their flood loss potential.

The new storm surge model accounts for all of the influences on coastal flooding, including storm intensity, radius of maximum winds, coastal bathymetry, and the presence of inlets or bays. Knowledge of terrain and topography features along with high resolution elevation data enables the model to estimate the water heights at specific inland locations. The model also accounts for surge mitigation devices such as sea walls.

The RiskInsight model will be presented to the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology later this month.

Source: Karen Clark & Company