Miami Among the US Cities Most Vulnerable to Costly Hurricane Damage

So far, 2021 has been a historic year for natural disasters in the United States. There were a record 18 weather and climate disasters costing more than $1 billion each in the first nine months of 2021, according to a report from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. Wildfires, severe storms, tornadoes, and extreme temperatures resulted in 538 deaths and $104.8 billion in damage nationwide from January through September -- eclipsing totals from all of 2020.

Going forward, climate change will likely only continue to contribute to the increased frequency and severity of natural disasters, including hurricanes -- the deadliest and most destructive classification of natural disaster threatening the United States. Over the past two decades, hurricanes have killed an average of over 300 Americans per year and resulted in overall damage totalling nearly $1 trillion.

According to a recent report from CoreLogic -- a property information, analytics, and data provider -- nearly 8 million single-family homes are at risk of storm surge damage from hurricanes, and over 31 million homes are at risk of damage from hurricane winds nationwide. These risks are disproportionately shouldered by metropolitan areas along the Eastern Seaboard and along the Gulf of Mexico.

There are 738,994 single-family homes, with a total replacement cost of $149.3 billion, at risk of a storm surge in the event of a hurricane in the Miami metropolitan area. Nearly 2 million area homes with estimated replacement costs topping $406 billion are at risk of hurricane wind damage.

Nearly three decades ago, Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 165 mph made landfall south of Miami and devastated the metro area, resulting in over 40 deaths and $30 billion in damage. At the time, it was the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

All data on the number of at-risk homes and reconstruction cost value is from CoreLogic's 2021 Hurricane Report. Metropolitan areas are ranked on the number of single-family residential structures less than four stories at moderate or greater risk of damage from storm surge flooding in the 2021 hurricane season.