A day before Hurricane Helene was forecast to make landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Moody’s published an interactive online map revealing 161,849 commercial properties in direct path, valued at over $425 million.

The commercial properties included in the tallies are those with a greater than 50 percent probability of being exposed to wind speeds of at least 50 mph, Moody’s said, noting that this is the wind speed at which some damage is likely.

“Helene has the potential to be the most severe storm in an otherwise quiet hurricane season, surpassing the economic impact of Francine, Beryl and Debby on the merits of its intensity and the projected location of where it will make landfall,” said Chris Lafakis, Moody’s Climate Economist, in a statement accompanying the map and data insights.

The interactive analysis shows the estimated number of properties exposed and their values by type, revealing that retail properties and apartments account for nearly 60 percent of the commercial buildings in the path of the storm, with the bulk of the dollar values (173.8 billion or 41 percent) in the apartment category.

From a dropdown menu, interested insurance carriers can drill down to see this information for specific cities. In the chart above, Carrier Management summarized the information for three cities, St. Pete and Tampa in Florida and Savannah, Ga.

Notably, the analysis was prepared by Moody’s on Sept. 24, estimating exposure of commercial real estate properties to wind hazard only.

This analysis did not consider flooding or storm surge effects, Moody’s said, noting that actual damage to these properties will be based on a range of factors, including asset-level and regional risk mitigation measures.

The exposure values provided were based on rough approximation of property values using average price per unit or square foot for recent transactions in the geographic region.

Moody’s indicated that the projections provided were not a prediction of losses or damages Helene will ultimately cause. Instead, they were meant to provide an initial sense of the scope of the commercial real estate value in the storm’s path.

After the storm, Moody’s will provide loss and damage estimates.

The interactive analysis is available here: Hurricane Helene (moodys.com)

Source: Moody’s