Housing

15 US Cities at Greatest Risk From Storm Surges

Paul Ausick

Published: June 1, 2016 9:55 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 7:21 am

June 1 marks the official start to the U.S. hurricane season, and 2016 is likely to see an uptick in hurricanes. That’s relatively easy to say because no hurricane made landfall in 2015 and no major hurricane has made landfall in the United States since Wilma in 2005.

Coincidentally, CoreLogic on Wednesday released its 2016 Storm Surge Report that includes its latest analysis of the potential for damage from hurricane-caused storm surge along the Atlantic or Gulf coasts. The analysis suggests that more than 6.8 million homes along these coasts are at risk of destruction from a storm surge with a potential $1.55 trillion rebuilding cost.

Nearly three-quarters of the rebuilding cost due to storm-surge risk — $1.13 billion — is concentrated in just five states: Florida ($535.67 billion), Louisiana ($184.34 billion), New York ($177.02 billion), New Jersey ($139.6 billion) and Texas ($91.65 billion).

The 15 metropolitan areas facing the most potential property damage are led by Miami, where more than 780,000 properties are at risk with a total reconstruction value of more than $143.92 billion. Based on rebuilding costs, New York City tops the list with a total cost of $260.2 billion for 719,000 properties. Here is the full list, ranked in order of properties at risk:

1. Miami: 780,482 properties; reconstruction value of $143.95 billion
2. New York City: 719,373 properties valued at $260.2 billion
3. Tampa: 457,746 properties valued at $80.63 billion
4. New Orleans: 390,806 properties valued at $94.04 billion
5. Virginia Beach, N.C.: 385,084 properties valued at $83.47 billion
6. Cape Coral, Fla.: 306,953 properties valued at $61.99 billion
7. Houston: 280,112 properties valued at $51.87 billion
8. Bradenton, Fla.: 250,615 properties valued at $47.33 billion
9. Naples, Fla.: 180,919 properties valued at $43.18 billion
10. Jacksonville, Fla.: 166,709 properties valued at $35.81 billion
11. Philadelphia: 165,940 properties valued at $31.88 billion
12. Charleston, S.C.: 145,356 properties valued at $36.19 billion
13. Boston: 129,167 properties valued at $38.48 billion
14. Myrtle Beach, N.C.: 123,645 properties valued at $21.59 billion
15. Lafayette, La.: 119,942 properties valued at $25.83 billion

In some of these cities, CoreLogic notes, homeowners are required to purchase flood insurance if their properties are located within the FEMA 100-year floodplains. But if a property is not within a designated flood zone, flood insurance is not required and many homeowners don’t purchase it.

For example, of 393,654 properties at risk in the New Orleans-Metairie metro area, 54.3% are located in both a FEMA flood zone and a surge zone, and mortgage lenders would require flood insurance on these homes. About 45% of the properties are located only in a surge zone where flood insurance is not typically required. Homeowners in the surge zones often do not even consider buying flood insurance, even though their homes are located in high-risk areas.