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(CNN) – The material damage caused by the floods and strong winds of Hurricane Florence are increasingly evident – and repairing the damage will not be cheap.
North Carolina was most affected by the fury of the storm on sunny days and, as one might expect, lost the most, as two analyzes show. Lawmakers are scheduled to meet on Tuesday for an extraordinary session devoted to the question of how to undertake and pay for the recovery.
In the three hardest-hit states – North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia – the cost of rebuilding is staggering. Here's a look at the price of devastation:
$ 45 billion
the high-end estimate of property damage reflects the effects of floodwaters and strong winds on thousands of single-family homes in a huge disaster area, according to Moody's Analytics.
"Many flooded areas as a result of Hurricane Matthew are experiencing similar tribulations this fall, but the footprint appears to be noticeably wider after Florence, spreading to about 200 km in the summer. west of the North Carolina coast and extending 150 km from north to south. "analysts Ryan Sweet and Adam Kamins, comparing Florence to the storm of 2016, analyze.
$ 28.5 billion
This is the maximum estimate of all flood losses CoreLogic analysis, including storm surges, rains and flooding rivers.
Once again, North Carolina is thought to have suffered the most, with $ 22 billion in losses, followed by South Carolina with $ 5.5 billion and about $ 1 billion in Virginia.
This total accounts for about half of the $ 66 billion in real estate lost in 2005, adjusted for inflation, as a result of Hurricane Katrina floods in five states, most of which in Nova Scotia. Orleans.
$ 18.5 billion
As in Katrina, most of the houses and businesses devastated by the waters of Florence were not insured against the damage caused by rising water. These houses account for more than two-thirds of the estimated total uninsured flood loss, The CoreLogic estimate shows.
In North Carolina alone, floods could cost up to $ 14.5 billion to uninsured home and commercial property owners, up to $ 3.5 billion in South Carolina and $ 500 million in Virginia.
That compares to the $ 40 billion of uninsured losses last year when Hurricane Harvey struck the Texas Gulf Coast and flooded the Houston area for several days.
Most private insurance policies do not protect against damage caused by floods caused by storm surges, rain or river overflows. For this, the National Flood Insurance Program, known as NFIP and managed by FEMA, provides coverage; in fact, it is mandatory for federally guaranteed mortgages in areas deemed at risk of flooding.
However, many homes damaged annually by nationwide floods are outside of designated flood zones – often because federal flood maps do not accurately reflect the risk of flooding.
"The delineations of the flood zone are totally wrong," said CNK analyst Chuck Watson of the Enki Research claims research group, as Florence headed for the coast. "But communities do not like floodplain expansion because it makes development more expensive and more difficult, so floodplains do not really reflect the risks."
"The losses (in Florence) will no doubt be exacerbated by the lack of flood insurance," wrote Moody's analysts, accusing "of obsolete flood maps that have allowed many property owners to remain uninsured despite the risk ".
It also happens that homeowners drop their flood insurance because they have no mortgage or their lender does not check.
$ 5 billion
This is the upper limit of what the NFIP should pay for losses insured by the federal government residential and commercial property, according to CoreLogic. In total, approximately 445,000 properties in the three states are covered by government-supported policies.
This type of payment could carry another blow to the NFIP, which was put under fire from critics last year when it had to pay $ 8.7 billion in claims for hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, the third highest total in her history.
These payments would have pushed the program's finances beyond its borrowing limits, but Congress canceled $ 16 billion from the program owed to the federal government so that it could pay the claims.
The problem persists and boils down to this: the NFIP premiums are not high enough to accurately reflect the risks. But Congress is reluctant to raise rates and check people living in flood-prone areas. Thus, the money well on which to draw the claims remains extremely low.
$ 1.5 billion
Although Florence was primarily recognized as a rainy event, the losses caused by wind damage CoreLogic could cost more than $ 1 billion to residential and commercial property owners, noting that these damages are covered by standard home insurance policies.
The-CNN-Wire
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