With an estimated 760,272 homes at risk of being inundated by storm surge flooding this year, Louisiana trails only Florida for the number of homes at risk as the hurricane season gets underway.
That’s according to a new analysis released Thursday by global property information firm CoreLogic, which says more than 6.6 million homes are at risk of hurricane storm surge damage this year—with a total reconstruction cost value of $1.5 trillion.
“At the regional level, the Atlantic Coast has more than 3.8 million homes at risk of storm surge in 2015 with an RCV of $939 billion, and the Gulf Coast has just under 2.8 million homes at risk and nearly $549 billion in potential exposure to total destruction damage,” CoreLogic says, noting its analysis includes 19 coastal states and the District of Columbia.
Six states, including Louisiana, account for more than 75% of all at-risk homes nationally. Florida leads the way, with more than 2.5 million homes, followed by Louisiana, New York (464,148), New Jersey (446,148), Texas (441,304) and Virginia (420,052). Homes at risk are categorized by CoreLogic among five risk levels, including low, moderate, high, very high and extreme.
“Even though Louisiana has the second most homes at risk of storm surge, only one-quarter of these homes are in the extreme or very high storm surge category due, in large part, to the upgrade and expansion of levees in Louisiana,” CoreLogic notes.
At the metro level, New Orleans is ranked No. 5 in the nation for at-risk homes. The estimated 380,120 homes at risk in New Orleans represent a total reconstruction cost of more than $84.2 billion—a figure that represents the cost of replacing all of them if they were 100% ruined during a storm.
Baton Rouge is not among the 15 metros in the country that are considered to be most at risk. However, the analysis shows a total of 127,258 homes here are at risk, with 47.9% of homes in the area located in a potential surge zone.
—Steve Sanoski
