Blog

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) confirmed on November 8th, 2024, that more than 72,000 claims had been filed by National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policyholders who experienced flood damage from hurricanes Debby, Helene, and Milton in Florida.

As of last Friday, NFIP policyholders had received around $894 million to repair their properties and replace contents, after the trio of hurricanes made landfall in Florida before impacting other parts of the US, including Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Last month, FEMA reported that, as of October 25th, 2024, NFIP policyholders had filed more than 54,000 claims following hurricane Helene, the sixth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season and the fourth to make landfall in the US.

At this level, it is quite a high level of NFIP claims for a major flood event caused by a named tropical storm. Recall, FEMA reported that it made 47,000 claims payments for 2022’s hurricane Ian, an event that resulted in more than $4.5 billion in claims payments being made.

But it’s important to note that the over 54,000 figure is for the entire footprint of the storm’s flood impacts, so beyond Florida and into other affected states.

Just two weeks after Helene, hurricane Milton hit Florida and impacted many of the same regions with strong winds, storm surge, heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding.

Now, FEMA has provided an insight into the level of NFIP claims for the three storms, but unfortunately does not break out the numbers for the individual storms, so it’s difficult to know which event is the main driver in Florida.

However, Debby was the smallest event of the three, and with flooding from Helene far worse north than in Florida, and the fact it currently appears as though Milton caused greater storm surge in Florida, it’s possible that the majority, or more than half of the over 72,000 NFIP claims reported by FEMA in Florida relate to Milton.

Of course, it’s impossible to know for sure as FEMA hasn’t broken out the data, but, at this stage, it does seem plausible that Milton could be the driver of NFIP claims in the state.