While Hurricane Helene initially struck Florida, its aftermath has disproportionately impacted inland North Carolina. With over 50 deaths and widespread damage from flooding and landslides, residents are now facing a daunting reality – many may not receive insurance payouts due to the complexities of coverage for flood-related damage.
Helene made landfall southeast of Tallahassee, Florida, last week with winds up to 140 miles per hour, downing trees and bringing record-breaking storm surges to areas along the Gulf Coast before charging up through Georgia. But perhaps its most shocking impacts have been on inland North Carolina , where it first started raining while the storm was still over Mexico. At least 57 people are dead in Buncombe County in the west of the state alone.
statistics show that just 4 percent of homeowners have flood insurance. Some areas hit by Helene in Appalachia, initial statistics show, have less than 2.5 percent of homeowners signed up for the federal program. “Even in coastal areas, not many people buy that, much less here in the mountains,” Marlett says. “People have never seemed to fully understand that flood is a separate policy.
. But the data is based on extremely outdated floodplain maps that have not taken the most recent climate science on record rainfall into account. “The biggest non-secret in Washington for decades is how hopelessly out of date these flood maps are,” Hornstein says. Even if water wasn’t the cause of destruction for some homeowners in North Carolina, the storm’s disastrous mudslides—another risk supercharged by climate change—may not be covered either.
payouts may bring, at best, only a fraction of what a home would be worth. Auto insurance generally covers all types of damage, including flooding—a small bright spot of relief, but not enough to offset the loss of a family’s main asset. “People at the coast, at some point after the nth storm, they start to get the message,” Hornstein says. “But for people in the western part of the state, this is just Armageddon.
Hurricane Flooding North Carolina Insurance Climate Change
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