Residential, Commercial Damage from August Louisiana Flood Estimated at $8.7B

The August 2016 flooding in Louisiana caused an estimated $8.7 billion in damage to residential and commercial properties. Damage to businesses in the state has exceeded $2 billion, according to a report commissioned by Louisiana Economic Development (LED), the mission of which is to implement economic development strategies for the state.

The LED’s damage estimate does not include damage to the state’s infrastructure.

LED commissioned economist Dek Terrell of Lewis Terrell and Associates LLC to conduct the damage assessment.

In addition to an estimated 109,000 housing units damaged, nearly 20,000 Louisiana businesses were interrupted by the flooding that began Aug. 11 and continued for days, leading to the flooding of more than 6,000 businesses in 22 affected parishes.

LED surveyed 455 economic driver firms in flood-impacted regions — those employers that contribute the most output to the state’s economy — and found that 6 percent suffered significant damage while 9 percent sustained minor damage.

“The good news we want to project is that most of our major industries in Louisiana remained open and today are continuing their operations successfully,” LED Secretary Don Pierson said in a media release. “During the three-week period after the flooding event began, Louisiana shouldered labor and value-added production losses that affected 6 percent of our economic activity statewide. As a state economy we are doing better every day, and we remain strong and open for business.”

Three of every four homes in Livingston Parish were impacted by flooding, the LED said.

The operations of an estimated 20,000 businesses were affected by the flooding. At the peak, LED estimates that 278,500 Louisiana residents were unable to work due to temporary closures, suspension of operations, transportation impasses and residential flooding.

At mid-September, FEMA had provided more than $1 billion in total federal assistance to Louisiana disaster survivors and communities. More than 63,000 Louisiana families are receiving housing-related assistance through federal programs.

Gov. John Bel Edwards has asked Congress for $2 billion in additional flood disaster aid assistance.

Separately, in its recent Global Catastrophe Recap report, Impact Forecasting, Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development team, estimated that the total economic losses as a result of the Louisiana flooding are expected to range between $10 billion and $15 billion.

However, because more than 80 percent of damaged homes were not covered by flood insurance, the public and private insured portion of the losses will be significantly less — in the low-digit single billions, the Global Catastrophe report estimates.