FEMA reports 54,000 NFIP flood insurance claims filed for hurricane Helene

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has reported that policyholders of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) have filed more than 54,000 claims so far after recent hurricane Helene.

Hurricane Helene drove significant flood impacts across multiple states, from its landfall in the Florida Big Bend right the way up the eastern part of the country to North Carolina.

While it has been widely reported that flood insurance penetration is particularly low in some of the worst impacted areas, the 54,000 claims filed is high for a hurricane event impact to the NFIP.

It’s important to note here that these are filed claims from policyholders, not the number of claims payments made.

But, even with that in mind, 54,000 claims filed is a high number for an NFIP loss event and suggests hurricane Helen could be among the most costly flood events the NFIP has ever responded to.

For comparison, FEMA reported that it made 47,000 claims payments for 2022’s hurricane Ian, an event that resulted in over $4.5 billion in claims payments being made.

Hurricane Harvey from 2017, meanwhile, resulted in over 92,000 claims payments being made, costing more than $9 billion.

FEMA said on hurricane Helene, that as of October 25th, “More than 54,000 National Flood Insurance Program Policyholders who had flood damage from Helene in affected states have filed claims. As of today, policyholders have received approximately $480 million to repair their properties and replace contents.”

It seems likely hurricane Helene could drive a top-10 NFIP flood insurance loss event, given the volume of claims filed so far.

As a reminder, the NFIP’s FloodSmart Re catastrophe bonds begin to attach their reinsurance coverage at a $6 billion loss to the NFIP, while the traditional reinsurance arrangements attach at $7 billion of losses.

We suspect NFIP claims for Helene will continue to be filed over the coming weeks, with some regions that were devastated only becoming more accessible now some weeks after the storms impacts.

How those more than 54,000 claims that have been filed, as well as any additional claims filed over the coming weeks, translate into actual claims payments being made will be critical in defining the eventual Helene impact to the NFIP.

It’s also worth noting that hurricane Milton will also likely be a sizeable loss event for the NFIP, especially in Florida in the case of this more recent storm. No information is available at this time on the NFIP claims burden from this event.