CoreLogic: Final Estimated Damages for Hurricane Helene to be Between $30.5 Billion and $47.5 Billion

Business Wire

Total insured loss estimated at $10.5 to $17.5 billion

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
CoreLogic^®, a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, announced its updated and final damage estimates for Hurricane Helene.

According to this new and final data analysis, total flood and wind losses are between $30.5 billion and $47.5 billion. This estimate includes wind loss as well as insured and uninsured storm surge and inland flood loss for residential and commercial properties across 16 states. See Table 1 below for a detailed breakdown of peril loss estimates.

Insured flood loss from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and private insurance for residential and commercial properties is estimated to be between $6 billion and $11 billion, which includes both re-evaluated storm surge and new estimates for inland flooding.
Wind losses are estimated to be $4.5 billion to $6.5 billion.
Uninsured flood loss is estimated to be between $20 billion and $30 billion.

"When intense storm surge and flooding events, like Hurricane Helene, reach regions that are infrequently affected by natural hazards, we can expect to see damage to homes without flood insurance coverage. The fact that so much damage was concentrated outside the Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHAs) makes it challenging to realize the full extent of impact to uninsured homeowners,” explains Jon Schneyer, Director of Catastrophe Response at CoreLogic. “Thankfully FEMA's NFIP is expected to provide up to $6.5 billion of insurance for the recovery efforts, which will help bring much needed recovery aid to the affected areas."

Table 1: Hurricane Helene Insured and Uninsured Wind and Flood Losses

Peril	Industry Loss (in billions)
Wind	$4.5 - $6.5
Flood¹	$6.0 - $11.0
Private Insured	$1.5 - $4.5
NFIP	$4.5 - $6.5
Total Insured Wind and Flood	$10.5 - $17.5
Uninsured Flood	$20.0 - $30.0
Total Wind and Flood (insured + uninsured):	$30.5 - $47.5

¹Losses paid by private insurers and the NFIP for recovery. Includes both inland flood and storm surge. Source: CoreLogic, 2024

More Information on Damage Estimates

Insured loss represents the amount insurers and NFIP will pay to cover damages. Unlike wind damage, which is covered by a standard homeowners policy, flood is a separate coverage which is not mandatory outside the designated SFHAs.

The analysis includes damage to both buildings and their contents of residential, commercial, and industrial structures including a time element component and does not include broader economic loss from the storm. The losses also include damage to automobiles. Damage to personal marine craft, offshore infrastructure, governmental structures, and infrastructure (like roads and bridges) are excluded.

Visit the CoreLogic Hazard HQ Command Central™ to get more details about the storm characteristics and data insights for Hurricane Helene.

Methodology

The U.S. Inland Flood Model models all sources of precipitation-driven flooding including riverine, stream, off-plain, and flash flooding. It delivers a comprehensive analytic view of the risk, utilizing widespread coverage of hydrologic and hydraulic data that reflects regional flooding and drainage patterns. As flood risk evolves due to urbanization and change in baseline stream and sea levels, the flood risk methodology from CoreLogic is designed to stay abreast of the latest flood risk data and research, ensuring continuity of risk insights into the future.

The CoreLogic North Atlantic Hurricane Model includes improved location risk and estimation through its robust stochastic event set, high-resolution hazard modeling, component-level vulnerability, and usage of PxPoint™, the structure- and parcel-level geocoding engine. With detailed and rigorously validated model outputs, the model provides the ability to calculate damage contributions from wind and storm surge, providing a transparent way of looking at loss as well as to obtain a better understanding of capital adequacy for the separate or combined perils of hurricane winds and coastal storm surge flooding. The model offers a complete view of the risk for all perils and sub-perils. The North Atlantic Hurricane Model is updated biennially and has been certified by the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology (FCHLPM) since the inception of the process in 1997.

Source: CoreLogic

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