6.9 Million Homes On Atlantic and Gulf Coasts at Risk of Storm Surge Damage

6.9 Million Homes On Atlantic and Gulf Coasts at Risk of Storm Surge Damage
June 1st marks the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season. The Atlantic and Gulf coasts took a beating from storms in 2016, resulting in billions of dollars in damages. While 2017 is projected to have a less active hurricane season, it doesn’t minimize the risk of storm surge damage.
The Impact of Storm Surge Damage
To demonstrate the severity that storm surge damage can create, approximately 6.9 million homes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts have the potential to be damaged from storm surge flooding. Equally as alarming, the total reconstruction cost of these properties amounts to more than $1.5 trillion dollars. Florida has more homes at risk for storm surge damage (approximately 2.8 million properties) than any other state in the country due to its expansive coastal area.

Diligent Underwriting is More Important than Ever
Although the NOAA is predicting only two to four major hurricanes this season, insurance carriers need to be more diligent than ever with their underwriting processes. Even a lower-level category storm has the potential to create significant damage if it impacts a highly populated area.

Property and casualty insurance carriers have been experiencing a declining profitability trend over the past few years, and the number of homes at risk for storm surge flooding could further impact profitability if underwriters are not thorough.

How Insurance Risk Services Provides Insurance Carriers with Accurate Underwriting Support
Our team of seasoned professionals at Insurance Risk Services has been partnering with property and casualty insurance carriers for more than 35 years to help them determine which risks are worth taking. We provide accurate underwriting support that our insurance carrier partners can count on.

As technology continues to advance, some carriers are choosing to forego property inspections and instead rely on data to underwrite risk. In our experience, our in-person property inspections provide tremendous value to insurance carriers–value that can’t be replaced by big data.

During a property inspection, we’re able to accurately identify risks that may not be brought to the attention of the insurance carrier otherwise. Also, the one-on-one interactions that we have with insureds during inspections provides our team with an opportunity to make homeowners aware of ways that they can protect their properties, which helps to minimize the need to file claims.

Our underwriting reports are customized to meet your every need so that you can best determine insurance risk that is worth taking. With the arrival of hurricane season, you want an experienced partner on your side. Please contact us at Insurance Risk Services to learn more about how we can help you to mitigate risk and protect your profitability.