Historical Hurricanes that Would Cause $10 Billion or More of Insured Losses Today
August 21, 2012
This paper identifies all historical US hurricanes since 1900 that, if they were to strike again today (in 2012) with the same meteorological parameters, would likely cause $10 billion or more of insured losses. Twenty-eight such storms are identified, one of which has estimated losses in excess of $100 billion.
Estimating losses from historical hurricanes requires multiple tools and data sources, including knowledge of current property values, the size and extent of the hurricane windfields, and historical loss information. To conduct this study, information was gathered from many sources, cross-referenced, and modified if necessary to estimate the losses today for each hurricane. This paper also explains why other sources of information tend to underestimate the insured losses historical storms would cause today.