Texas, Louisiana Highly Vulnerable to Hurricane Storm Surge Loss: CoreLogic

Texas and Louisiana are among the top states for potential storm surge losses at the start of the 2018 hurricane season, which began on June 1.

That’s according to Irvine, California-based CoreLogic, a provider of global property information and analytics. In its 2018 CoreLogic Storm Surge Report, CoreLogic named Florida, Louisiana and Texas as the top three states with the most homes at risk.

The top Core-Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) at risk for storm surge are identified as Miami, New York City, Tampa, New Orleans and Virginia Beach.

Nationally, 6.9 million homes are at risk of hurricane storm surge damage with $1.6 trillion in potential reconstruction costs at stake, according to the report. Reconstruction cost estimates have increased 6.6 percent from 2017 due to higher regional construction, equipment and labor costs.

The CoreLogic analysis examines risk from hurricane-driven storm surge for homes along the Atlantic and Gulf coastlines across 19 states, as well as for 86 metro areas.

Homes are categorized by five risk levels: Low (homes affected only by a Category 5 storm), Moderate (homes affected by Category 4 and 5 storms), High (homes affected by Category 3, 4 and 5 storms), Very High (homes affected by Category 2, 3, 4 and 5 storms) and Extreme (homes affected by Category 1-5 storms).

RCV figures represent the cost to completely rebuild a property in case of damage — including labor and materials by geographic location — assuming the worst-case scenario at 100 percent destruction.

CoreLogic noted in its report that more than 3 million homes are at risk along the Gulf Coast, with more than $609 billion in potential exposure to total destruction damage. That’s a cost increase of more than $16 billion compared to 2017.

Regions with less coastal exposure but with lower elevations that extend inland tend to have more total homes at risk because storm surge water can penetrate inland areas. Additionally, due to market conditions and previous storm surge damage, construction costs can increase despite having a lower number of at-risk homes compared to other states or CBSAs.

At the state level, Florida has the most coastal exposure and has the most susceptibility to storm surge flooding of the 19 states analyzed, with more than 2.7 million at-risk homes across the five risk categories. Louisiana ranks second with over 817,000 at-risk homes, Texas ranks third with more than 543,000 at-risk homes.

Florida also has the highest RCV at over $552 billion. The RCV estimate for Louisiana totals more than $186 billion and Texas has an estimated RCV of more than $103 billion.