Insured losses exceed $5 billion with heavy flooding, but few are covered by flood insurance

The storm’s winds, rain and waves have killed at least 90 people in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia, according to a Reuters tally of state and local officials.

Officials feared more bodies would be discovered in the coming days.

Claims of business disruption are likely to rise across the region as flooding and washed-out roads shut down businesses and cellphone service was non-existent in some areas. The city of Asheville, North Carolina, home to a thriving tourism industry, was heavily flooded and left completely isolated. State officials set up airlifts to bring food and water to residents on Sunday.

“Grocery stores are closed, cell phone service is down,” said Chip Frank, 62, as he entered his third hour of waiting in line, according to Reuters. “It all depends on these gas stations. You won’t be able to go anywhere and it’s just a scary feeling.”

The North Carolina Department of Transportation has restricted all travel in the western part of the state.

“This is a devastating catastrophe of historic proportions,” Gov. Roy Cooper told CNN. “People I talk to in western North Carolina say they’ve never seen anything like it.”

The extreme water levels surprised many. Most flood losses in the area will not be covered by insurance.

“Public and private flood take-up rates are minimal in the mountainous regions of the Southeast and will be primarily the responsibility of the property owner,” global risk and reinsurance firm Guy Carpenter said on Monday.

Across the region, total economic losses, excluding insured losses, could reach up to $110 billion, AccuWeather said. Moody’s Analytics estimated total losses at no more than $34 billion.

On Florida’s west coast, where the powerful storm flooded hundreds of homes, mortgage companies may eventually raise requirements for more flood insurance, Guy Carpenter noted. “Wind insurers can bear expenses to adjust water demands with zero final payment.”

A series of fires broke out in Tampa, destroying some homes that also faced damage from the storm and wind-driven rain.

On storm-battered Horseshoe Beach on Florida’s Gulf Coast, about 75 miles west of Gainesville, Charlene Huggins surveyed the wreckage of her blown-out home, pulling a jacket from the rubble on Saturday, Reuters reported.

“Five generations have lived in this house, from my grandmother, my father, me, my daughter, my son and my granddaughter,” Huggins said, holding a chipped glass cake stand. “So there are a lot of memories here. It just breaks your heart.”

Not far away, James Ellenburg stood on the property where his own family had lived for four generations. “We took the first step right here in this yard.”

The roof of a house lay flat in the ground, the walls destroyed.

On the Steinhatchee coast, a 8- to 10-foot storm surge moved mobile homes, the weather service said.

“I’ve never seen as many homeless people as I have now,” said Janalea England, of Steinhatchee, a small river town along the state’s rural Big Bend. She turned her commercial fish market into a donation site for friends and neighbors, many of whom couldn’t get insurance on their homes, the Associated Press reported.

Other areas saw a storm surge of 15 feet (4.5 meters).

In the small nearby community of Spring Warrior Fish Camp, people were surveying the damage Saturday and still waiting for emergency assistance or first responders.

“No one thinks about us here,” said David Hall, as he and his wife dug through sea grass and dead fish in the office of the hotel they owned. Many of the community’s homes are built on stilts due to a local ordinance and have survived heavy damage.

Kristin Macqueen was helping friends clean up after their house was destroyed in nearby Keaton Beach. “It’s complete devastation,” she said. “Houses just had their tiles ripped off.”

East Tennessee also experienced widespread flooding, and a dam came close to breaking over the weekend. The water level behind the Nolichucky Dam near Morristown began to recede, but only after downstream residents were evacuated.

Top photo: Emergency personnel monitor rising waters in Asheville on Friday. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)

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