Milton flood impacts in Florida “similar to, or even more than Helene”

According to analysis from ICEYE, the provider of satellite data and services to inform decision-making and analysis, more buildings may have been impacted by flooding from hurricane Milton in Florida than was seen with hurricane Helene.

“Significant surges” hit the area around where hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida’s west coast, but as the storm moved through the state the region was left with “extensive flooding and damage” ICEYE said.

ICEYE has monitored the storm and its impacts since its formation using its array of satellites.

The company acquired more than 100 SAR satellite images of the impacted areas, even through through thick storm clouds and at night, with a first flood extent and depth analysis delivered to clients on October 10th, focused on the west coast of Florida.

Now, with the data analysed and more information gleaned, ICEYE notes that Milton’s flood impacts for Florida could be greater than seen with hurricane Helene.

“Based on our initial data from Release 1, we see the number of buildings impacted being similar to, or even more than Helene which totaled over 150,000 buildings in Florida,” ICEYE explained.

Initial analysis from ICEYE on hurricane Helene found that flooding from that storm saw over 100,000 buildings impacted, with more than 10,000 of those being inundated to flood depths of greater than 5 feet.

It seems that hurricane Milton may prove more impactful, from the flooding side, including for the insurance and reinsurance market given uptake of flood coverage is higher in some of the regions of Florida worst affected.

Which does have potential ramifications for the catastrophe bond market, via FEMA’s series of cat bonds for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), the FloodSmart Re series of deals.

As we explained earlier, some of those FloodSmart Re cat bonds are among the tranches most marked down after hurricane Milton.