RMS, a company offering models and software to evaluate and manage catastrophe risks, estimates that insured losses from Hurricane Arthur will not exceed $250 million from wind and coastal flooding.
On July 3, Arthur made landfall at North Carolina’s Outer Banks as a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir Simpson Scale, weakening to a Category 1 hurricane before tracking offshore of Massachusetts. Arthur made a second landfall as a post-tropical storm in the Canadian Province of Nova Scotia. The expected loss covers damages to residential, commercial and industrial properties; automobile and watercraft lines of business; and business interruption resulting from power outages or damage to property.
In North Carolina the main driver of loss from Hurricane Arthur is from wind and coastal flooding. The storm impacted mostly residential properties. Residential insurance policies typically provide cover for surge-driven flood losses. In Massachusetts and Nova Scotia, damage is mainly the result of localized inland flooding from the rainfall associated with Arthur. Damage from wind and coastal flooding in this area was found to be minimal.
“Arthur is the first hurricane to make landfall in the United States since Hurricane Sandy in 2012,” said Brian Owens, senior director of business solutions at RMS. “What is unusual about Arthur, particularly for this time of year, is that it rapidly deepened to become a Category 2 hurricane. It’s also rare for hurricanes to form in early July, which climatologically is the quietest time of the hurricane season.”
