Last month’s winter storm that left dozens of Texans dead, millions without power, and nearly 15 million with water issues could wind up being the costliest disaster in state history.
Disaster-modeling firm AIR Worldwide says claims volume will likely be significant and, with average claims severity values of $15,000 for residential risks and $30,000 for commercial risks, insured losses ‘appear likely to exceed $10 billion.’
AIR says several variables could drive the loss well above that amount, including:
A higher-than-expected rate of claims among those risks affected by prolonged power outage,
Whether utility service interruption coverages pay out;
Larger-than-expected impacts from demand surge,
Government intervention, and
Whether claims related to mold damage start to emerge as a significant source of loss.
FitchRatings says the widespread scale and claims volume of the event could drive ultimate insured losses as high as $20 billion.