Karen Clark Puts Insured Losses from Debby at $1.4 Billion

Hurricane Debby caused almost $1.4 billion in privately insured losses as it moved across the East Coast this month. That’s about half of the losses incurred in Hurricane Idalia, a stronger storm that followed a similar path almost a year ago.

Karen Clark & Co., a catastrophe modeling and analytics firm, said that its estimates show $845 million in wind damage from Debby, which made its first landfall as a Category 1 hurricane at Florida’s Big Bend area. Storm surge from the storm caused about $130 million and inland flooding led to $440 million in losses.

“Debby’s slow forward motion allowed the storm to deliver significant rainfall along its path, resulting in widespread inland flooding all along the east coast,” the KCC report noted. “Rainfall totals in the Southeast were well over a foot in some areas of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas.”

The KCC estimate appears to be slightly lower than one provided this week by First Street Foundation, a non-profit organization that uses computer modeling and loss data to assess risk from climate change and storms. First Street pegged overall East Coast damage from Debby at $9.5 billion to $15.8 billion, mostly from flooding. But more than 70% of the damage was likely to be uninsured, First Street concluded.

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation reported that Florida insurer data show that through Thursday, Aug. 14, Debby claims have produced an estimated $114 million in total insured losses in Florida, a number that will likely rise as more claims are filed. A total of 15,326 claims had been filed by Thursday – only 165 of which were for private flood insurance.

By comparison, Hurricane Michael, a more powerful windstorm that hit the Florida Panhandle in 2018, caused more than $9 billion in insured losses in Florida from some 159,000 claims, OIR reported.

Karen Clark & Co. said that Debby caused less damage than did Idalia, partly because Debby’s storm surge was not as deep.

“Storm surge reached 6 feet in Cedar Key, Florida, and 4 feet at locations within Tampa Bay,” the KCC report noted. “Coastal flooding was reported in the towns of Crystal River and Horseshoe Beach, but flood waters were not as extensive or deep as those from last year’s Hurricane Idalia and caused only minor damage. Debby’s second landfall along the South Carolina coast led to storm surge of 1 to 2 feet.”

Last year, KCC estimated that Idalia’s total insured losses would be about $2.2 billion.

Photo: A middle school in Wilson County, North Carolina, after it was hit a tornado spawned by Tropical Storm Debby. (Christopher Long/The Wilson Times via AP)

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