KCC Estimates Hurricane Helene Insured Losses at $6.4B

Karen Clark & Co. estimates that the privately insured loss from Hurricane Helene will be close to $6.4 billion from wind, storm surge and inland flooding across nine states.

The estimate includes damage to residential, commercial and industrial properties and automobiles, as well as business interruption. It does not include boats, offshore properties or National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims, KCC noted.

“In contrast to a typical Category 4 hurricane, most of the damage occurred far from the landfall point, with higher wind damage in Georgia than Florida, more surge damage in Tampa, and the most significant inland flood damage in North Carolina,” KCC said in a statement.

Other risk modelers released preliminary estimates for the Sept. 26 hurricane on Friday.

CoreLogic published a preliminary estimate of insured wind and storm surge losses in the range of $3-$5 billion. This estimate does not consider losses for precipitation-induced inland flooding and excludes NFIP claims as well as damage to offshore property.

Fitch suggested an insured loss range of $5-$10 billion for Hurricane Helene, while AM Best forecasted the insured loss would be in excess of $5 billion. AM Best said the $5 billion was derived by making a comparison to Hurricane Idalia, which struck the sparsely populated area of Florida’s Big Bend region in August 2023, causing insured losses in the range of $2.5-$4 billion (according to Verisk).

KCC said the storm surge from Hurricane Helene broke records along portions of the Florida Gulf Coast—some of which were set just a year ago, when Hurricane Idalia made landfall in the Big Bend as a Category 3 hurricane. Cedar Key received 10.3 feet of storm surge from Helene, shattering the previous record of 6.9 feet set during Idalia.

Rainfall from Hurricane Helene caused inland flooding in a swath that stretched from Florida to Tennessee. More than a foot of rain fell in portions of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia.