Hurricane Michael puts 57,000 Gulf Coast homes at risk

At least 57,000 coastal homes, as well as high-rise condos and businesses, will be at risk from the landfall of Hurricane Michael. The storm is expected to hit the Florida Panhandle within the next day with winds of almost 130 miles per hour, along with 12-foot-high storm surge and heavy rain that will drench its way into the Carolinas. Florida Gov. Rick Scott described the hurricane as “monstrous.”  

Global analytics firm CoreLogic estimates that the total reconstruction value if all these homes were actually destroyed by what’s forecast to be a Category 3 hurricane — winds up to 129 miles per hour — could amount to $13.4 billion. Its figure for total possible damage includes single-family residential homes, manufactured and mobile homes, as well as cabins, but it doesn’t include damage to other structures.

In all likelihood, destruction on that scale won’t happen, but the most recent major storm, Hurricane Florence, caused $38 billion of damage, mostly in North Carolina and extended into South Carolina and Virginia. It inflicted a direct death toll of 29 people and another 19 indirectly.

Experts predict that Hurricane Michael could pose a similar threat, with storm surge and inland flooding from intense rainfall ultimately responsible for most of the damage and death. “When high winds and low pressure cause water to amass inside the storm, they release a powerful rush over land when the hurricane moves onshore,” CoreLogic said in a statement.

Areas likely to be hardest hit include the Crestview-Fort Walton Beach area, Panama City and Florida’s state capital, Tallahassee.

Since the Sunshine State has been battered by so many hurricanes, including the destructive Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Floridians are better prepared to handle flooding than virtually any other state. Florida homeowners have bought about one-third of the 5 million flood insurance policies issued by the federal government’s National Flood Insurance Program. That’s more than twice as many as Texas, the next closest state. 

Florida also has a vibrant private flood insurance market for homeowners and businesses to purchase coverage.

Put in perspective by Lynne McChristian, who teaches about insurance at Florida State University at Tallahassee: “If the entire state were to sink, Floridians would collect $442 billion in flood insurance.”

That may be small comfort, however, for the 120,000 Floridians, many of them in Panama City, who are facing mandatory evacuations, or the residents of Georgia, South and North Carolina, many of whom could face the same problems of flooding twice in as many months.