Hurricane Milton could cost $60 billion in insurance losses

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Hurricane Milton could result in insurance losses of up to $60 billion if it remains on its current path, with analysts warning that the 2024 US hurricane season will “dent” insurers' profitability.

The National Hurricane Center expects the storm, which is heading towards Florida, to make landfall south of Tampa as an “extremely dangerous major hurricane” on Wednesday evening. It is currently a Category 3 storm, with winds of up to 120 mph. The National Hurricane Center warned of “life-threatening” storm surges, tornadoes and storm surges of 10 feet or higher.

Credit rating agency Morningstar DBRS estimated that a change in course resulting in a direct hit to Tampa could result in losses of up to $100 billion, which would be on par with those of Hurricane Katrina, and would make it one of the costliest natural disasters in the world. History of the United States.

The head of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, Dianne Criswell, said Wednesday that Milton would be a “deadly and catastrophic storm” that would bring “massive storm surge, high winds and severe flooding” to Florida.

Milton is the second major hurricane to hit the United States in two weeks. This comes after Hurricane Helen wreaked havoc on several southeastern states, killing more than 225 people and destroying roads across western North Carolina.

Morningstar warned that the accumulation of losses during the 2024 hurricane season, which continues through the end of November, “will likely create a decline in insurer profitability,” especially for those with “significant personal lines exposure in Florida.”

While Southeast Florida has long been viewed as a high-risk region for hurricanes, insurers view the northern part of the state as a more attractive place to write policies, said Oscar Seikaly, CEO of Miami-based NSI Insurance Group. .

“Insurance companies have been balancing their business by writing a lot of insurance policies in the north, which has historically been fairly safe — until recently,” he said.

Seikaly added that potential damage in the area, where many homes were not built to withstand major storms, could be severe. “There are still frame homes, and those are the ones that fly away if you have a tropical storm,” he said.

He predicted that after this year's hurricane season, “policies will definitely go up by at least 20 percent.”

The US financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, said on Wednesday that it was “closely monitoring” Hurricane Milton's impact on investors and capital markets, and would consider offering relief from filing deadlines for those affected by the storm.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that 6,000 members of the Florida National Guard and 3,000 from other states are ready to respond to the effects of the hurricane.

“This is the largest Florida National Guard search and rescue operation in the entire history of the state of Florida,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

DeSantis also tried to reassure Floridians about fuel availability, after reports that some gas stations had run out due to panic buying. He added that highway patrol cars accompany oil tankers through traffic to replenish supplies at gasoline stations.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday criticized Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for leading a “campaign of lies” about the US government's response to the storm.

Trump sought to politicize both Hurricane Helen and Hurricane Milton by accusing the Biden administration of not doing enough to help communities affected by the storms. He also spread false information about the amount of financial aid available to people fleeing disaster areas.

“Over the past few weeks, there has been a reckless, irresponsible, and relentless promotion of misinformation and outright lies that upset people,” Biden said. “It undermines confidence in the amazing rescue and recovery work that has already been done and will continue to be done. It is harmful to those who need help most.”

Biden also attacked a social media post by Republican congresswoman from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene, suggesting the government controls the weather.

“It is beyond ridiculous,” he said. “You must stop.”

In the Tampa Bay area, officials were texting and calling people to warn them of the dangers of failing to evacuate their homes. In Pinellas County, which is located on the peninsula that makes up Tampa Bay, officials warned people to “get out now.”

Cathy Perkins, director of emergency management, said 13 public shelters were open for people who had no other options to escape the hurricane, and she warned that bridges leading to Tampa would be closed. “Everyone in Tampa Bay should assume we're going to get to ground zero,” she said.

Meanwhile, an independent group of climate scientists said human-caused climate change increased Hurricane Helen's damaging rainfall by about 10 percent and its winds intensified by about 11 percent.

The group World Weather Attribution found in a report that global warming caused by burning fossil fuels has made the sea temperatures that fueled the storm more likely to rise by 200 to 500 times. New report.

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