Hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic damage along the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, and it is still categorized as the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. modern times.
Looking back at that devastating event sheds light on how to make communities less vulnerable to extreme storms and reduce economic losses.
What’s happening?
The Swiss Re Institute released a report detailing how Hurricane Katrina created an insurance nightmare and over $225 billion in total economic losses. This total figure includes $105 billion in insured losses, based on 2024 prices.
Economists, data analysts, and insurance experts evaluated the levels of insured losses from North Atlantic tropical cyclones between 1990 and 2024. They predicted that if the New Orleans area saw a repeat of Hurricane Katrina today, the amount of insured losses would be around $100 billion…