Hurricane Alert: Nearly 7 Million Homes Are in Danger
Hurricane Alert: Nearly 7 Million Homes Are in Danger
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As Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy have proved, Mother Nature can be unforgiving in her fury toward anyone—or any home or business—standing in her way. And with the growing threat of climate change, as evidenced by the increasingly wackier weather seen around the globe, the storms may only get worse.
About 6.8 million homes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U.S. could get walloped this year by hurricanes resulting in more than $1.5 trillion in reconstruction costs, according to CoreLogic’s 2016 Storm Surge Report. The report coincides with the start of the storm season this month.
There is about a 70% chance of about 10 to 16 storms hitting American soil this year, with about four to eight of them becoming hurricanes, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Atlantic hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.
The state at highest risk of storm damage is “sunny” Florida. About 2.7 million homes could be impacted by bad weather, with nearly 343,100 of them in extreme danger, according to the report.
“On the coastline, you have to be very concerned come hurricane season and be prepared,” says Deerfield Beach, FL–based real estate consultant Jack McCabe. “We all have hurricane shutters down here, and houses built over the last 20 years have had to conform to stricter building codes to withstand hurricane damage.”
The last huge storm to hit the state was Hurricane Wilma in 2005, which was estimated to tally more than $20 billion in damages.
The city most at risk is, unsurprisingly, Miami, with nearly 780,500 properties that could be impacted if a big one hits, according to the report. And a monster disaster could require a monster budget to rebuild, nearly $144 billion, according to the report.
“It’s always on our minds,” McCabe says of the natural disasters. “One can be catastrophic depending on the severity.”
The next state over which disaster looms was Louisiana, which is still recovering from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina and related flooding in 2005. Another large disaster could put about 800,000 homes at risk, with nearly 91,400 in extreme danger.
Texas was the next state on the list, with almost 531,200 properties at risk. It was followed by New Jersey, at more than 468,800, and New York, at more than 458,700. The latter two states are still rebuilding from the damage wrought by Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
There are nearly 3.9 million homes along the Atlantic Coast that could be impacted by storm surges, which could cost $953 billion to rebuild, according to the report. Meanwhile, there are more than 2.9 million homes on the Gulf Coast that could be hit by the potentially deadly storms, totaling about $592 billion in reconstruction costs.
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