Unnamed Carolina storm causes $7 billion in damage, AccuWeather says

The storm that swept through part of the Carolinas this week wasn’t organized enough to be named, but it still caused $7 billion in damage, according to a preliminary AccuWeather estimate. That was close to the $9 billion in damage left by Category 2 Hurricane Francine, which hit Louisiana on September 11.

The level of insured losses from the unnamed system was not available from AccuWeather, a storm tracking and forecasting service. But other reports suggest most of the losses will come from flooding, only partially covered by the National Flood Insurance Program and private flood insurance.

The storm dumped up to 20 inches of rain in southeastern North Carolina in what the National Weather Service said was a 1 in 1,000 event.

“While there was some wind damage, the flooding was catastrophic from this storm. People there say that if it wasn’t named, it was a storm they’ll never forget,” AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said in a statement.

AccuWeather storm chasers Tony Laubach and Aaron Jayjack described the band of rain near Wilmington as the worst they’ve ever experienced. Others called it a “torrential” storm that drenched local areas, including Carolina Beach. S

The long-used Saffir-Simpson wind scale rates hurricanes based on wind speed, with Category 5 considered the most intense. AccuWeather said it developed a RealImpact scale that includes wind, flooding, storm surge and overall impact. Rank the storms from less than 1 to 5.

The unnamed Carolina storm was rated a 1 on this scale, the second level, AccuWeather explained in an email.

Related: Hundreds of thousands of properties filed repeated NFIP flood claims

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Hurricane