Hurricane Milton could cost $60 billion in insurance losses

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Hurricane Milton could trigger up to $60 billion in insurance losses if it continues on its current trajectory, with analysts warning that the 2024 US hurricane season will “strain” insurers’ profitability.

The National Hurricane Center predicts the storm, which is heading toward Florida, will make landfall about 40 miles south of Tampa as a “highly dangerous major hurricane” Wednesday night. It is currently a Category 4 storm with winds of up to 155 miles per hour.

Credit rating agency Morningstar DBRS estimates that a change in course that leads to a direct hit on Tampa could trigger losses of up to $100 billion, which would match those of Hurricane Katrina and make it one of the costliest natural disasters in US history.

Milton is the second major hurricane to hit the US in two weeks. It comes after Hurricane Helene ravaged several southeastern states, killing more than 225 people and destroying roads in western North Carolina.

Morningstar warned that the accumulation of losses during the 2024 hurricane season, which runs through the end of November, “could hurt insurer profitability,” particularly for those with “significant personal lines exposure in Florida.”

On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US financial regulator, said it was “closely monitoring” the impact of Hurricane Milton on investors and capital markets and would consider granting exemptions from filing deadlines for those affected by the storm .

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said 6,000 members of the Florida National Guard and 3,000 from other states are ready to respond to the aftermath of the hurricane.

“This is the largest search and rescue mobilization of the Florida National Guard in the entire history of the state of Florida,” he told reporters Wednesday.

DeSantis also sought to reassure Florida residents about fuel availability, following reports that some gas stations had run dry due to panic buying. Highway patrol cars were escorting tankers through traffic to restock gas stations, he said.

In the Tampa Bay area, officials were texting and calling people to warn them of the dangers of not evacuating their homes. In Pinellas County, which sits on the peninsula that forms Tampa Bay, officials warned people to “get out now.”

Emergency Management Director Cathie Perkins said 13 public shelters are open for people who have no other options to escape the hurricane and warned that bridges over Tampa will close soon. “Everybody in Tampa Bay should assume we’re going to be ground zero,” she said.

Meanwhile, an independent group of climate researchers said human-caused climate change increased Hurricane Helene’s devastating rainfall by about 10 percent and increased winds by about 11 percent.

Global warming from burning fossil fuels has made the high sea temperatures that fueled the storm 200 to 500 times more likely, the World Weather Attribution group found in a new report.

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