January 2021
- New York was one of over a dozen states impacted by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. Sandy caused $30 billion in U.S. property losses when it occurred, including flood insurance claims covered by the federal flood insurance program, according to Aon. This makes Sandy the second most costly U.S. hurricane, after hurricane Katrina.
- The 1938 Great New England Hurricane of 1938 was one of the costliest storms to hit the area. The hurricane, which made landfall as a Category 3 storm during high tide along Long Island, New York and the Connecticut coast, caused extensive damage to those states as well as to Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The storm caused a total of 600 deaths, 1,700 injuries and over $400 million in damages, according to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. An analysis by Karen Clark and Company estimates that the storm would have caused $35 billion in insurance damages had it occurred under present conditions.
- There were 176,868 flood insurance policies in New York in 2018. Standard homeowners policies typically do not cover flood damage. Flood insurance is covered by the National Flood Insurance Program and a growing number of private companies.
- In New York 467,398 single-family homes were at risk in 2020 for storm surge damage from hurricanes up to Category 4 strength, according to CoreLogic, Inc. These homes would cost $194.4 billion to completely rebuild, including labor and materials.
- According to NOAA, of the total population of approximately 19.7 million in New York, almost 16 million people live in coastal portions of the state. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that two of the most intense U.S. hurricanes since 1960 affected coastal counties in New York: Hurricane Donna in 1960 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
- New York has a residual market plan that acts as a market of last resort for residential and commercial property insurance in the state.
- The New York Property Insurance Underwriting Association (NYPIUA) was formed in 1968 after passage by Congress of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968. This legislation made federal riot reinsurance available to those states that instituted such property insurance pools.
- Exposure to loss under NYPIUA was $8.9 billion in fiscal year 2019, up from $5.6 billion in 1990, even as the plan’s policy count went down. The plan’s total policy count (habitational and commercial) was 33,124 in fiscal year 2019 compared with 73,805 total policies in 1990.
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Other Resources
FEMA Regional Flood Fact Sheet: http://www.floodsmart.gov/floodsmart/pdfs/Region_2_Hurricane_fact_sheet_FINAL_for_web.pdf
I.I.I. Facts & Stats: Flood Insurance
I.I.I. Facts & Stats: Hurricanes
I.I.I. Issues Updates: Catastrophes
I.I.I. Issues Updates: Hurricane and Windstorm Deductibles
