Hurricane Katrina marked a turning point for the global (re)insurance community, altering our perception on readiness — both from an emergency disaster response perspective and an insurance perspective — and kickstarted efforts to improve hurricane track and intensity forecasting. To mark the 20th anniversary of Katrina, we take a deeper dive into the background of this historic storm and its lasting influence upon decision-making today.
The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was one of the most consequential and expensive ever recorded. Heavily driven by Hurricane Katrina's catastrophic impacts in New Orleans and elsewhere along the central Gulf Coast, the season broke both meteorological and financial records.
The 2005 season caused more than USD181 billion in direct economic loss which was, at the time, the largest nominal cost for an Atlantic season ever recorded. When adjusted to today's dollars, the total rises to USD298 billion. In light of such heavy losses, the 2005 season fundamentally changed how the insurance industry viewed and planned for natural catastrophe-related property risk.
As the industry marks 20 years since the event, we explore the impacts of Hurricane Katrina, and the wider 2005 season, in a new whitepaper. This includes:
- The 2005 hurricane season's place in history in terms of losses and meteorological records
- The evolution of hurricane forecasting since Katrina and its impacts on public communication of hurricane activity
- How the 2004/2005 hurricane seasons changed the insurance market, including the development of catastrophe modeling tools and structural changes in policy coverage
- Ongoing US flood insurance challenges in the context of hurricane risk
- How prepared we are for another Hurricane Katrina today
