Fact file: South Carolina hurricane insurance

June 2020

South Carolina was impacted by three of the ten costliest hurricanes based on insured damage: Hurricane Michael in 2018, Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Hurricane Charley in 2004.
Between 37,000 and 359,000 single-family homes are at risk of damage from storm surge in South Carolina, according to CoreLogic. In terms of reconstruction costs, storm surge damage ranges from $10.3 billion to $85.0 billion. The ranges reflect the intensity of hurricanes, with the lower range corresponding to a weak hurricane and the highest range reflecting damage from a Category 1 to a Category 4 hurricane.
About 2.1 million people were living in coastal areas of South Carolina in 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (a 7 percent increase from 2010).
South Carolina had 206,826 flood insurance policies in force in 2018, according to the National Flood Insurance Program. Standard homeowners policies typically do not cover flood damage. Flood insurance is covered by the National Flood Insurance Program and an increasing number of private insurers.
The South Carolina Wind and Hail Underwriting Association (SCWHUA), known as the Beach Plan or Wind Pool, is the market of last resort that provides wind and hail coverage to residential and commercial property owners in the coastal area of the state.
As of fiscal year 2019, the South Carolina Beach Plan had a total of 19,720 policies in force, down from 29,833 policies in force at the end of fiscal year 2016. The plan had an exposure of $5.8 billion in fiscal year 2019 down from $9.7 billion in 2016.

Top 10 Costliest Hurricanes In The United States (1)

			Estimated insured loss
Rank	Year	Hurricane	Dollars when occurred	In 2024 dollars (2)
1	2005	Hurricane Katrina	$65,000	$104,471
2	2022	Hurricane Ian	54,000	57,231
3	2021	Hurricane Ida	36,000	41,540
4	2012	Hurricane Sandy	30,000	40,939
5	2017	Hurricane Harvey	30,000	38,571
6	2017	Hurricane Irma	30,050	38,432
7	2017	Hurricane Maria	29,511	37,743
8	1992	Hurricane Andrew	16,000	35,845
9	2008	Hurricane Ike	18,200	26,259
10	2024	Hurricane Milton	20,000	20,000

(1) Includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and losses sustained by private insurers and government-sponsored programs such as the National Flood Insurance Program. Subject to change as loss estimates are further developed. As of January 2025.
(2) Adjusted for inflation by Aon using the U.S. Consumer Price Index.

Source: Aon.

View Archived Tables

Storm Surge Risk By State By Number Of Single-Family Homes and Reconstruction Value, 2019 (1)

		Number of single-family homes at risk by storm category (2)
Rank	State	Category 1	Category 2	Category 3	Category 4	Category 5
1	Florida	358,902	1,085,288	1,788,071	2,338,348	2,830,201
2	Louisiana	74,792	213,442	637,354	765,612	839,321
3	Texas	40,633	121,010	259,993	393,837	555,569
4	New Jersey	94,083	276,872	381,551	471,143	(3)
5	New York	76,797	227,962	351,783	467,398	(3)
6	Virginia	23,321	89,387	243,401	365,134	409,259
7	South Carolina	37,155	130,565	216,551	304,442	359,024
8	North Carolina	33,200	97,158	163,632	213,922	264,264
9	Massachusetts	9,310	45,042	101,171	157,311	(3)
10	Georgia	9,863	54,777	112,747	151,627	163,191
11	Maryland	16,473	58,141	96,774	124,684	(3)
12	Mississippi	9,005	29,381	60,167	90,360	102,199
13	Pennsylvania	924	21,406	58,659	85,480	(3)
14	Connecticut	6,874	29,194	47,292	68,022	(3)
15	Alabama	5,777	15,596	29,234	41,164	54,586
16	Delaware	11,027	31,329	49,517	67,320	(3)
17	Rhode Island	1,391	7,423	16,513	25,354	(3)
18	Maine	5,846	8,300	12,336	18,824	(3)
19	New Hampshire	186	3,999	7,069	9,315	(3)
	Total homes potentially affected	815,559	2,546,272	4,633,815	6,158,577	7,071,745
		Reconstruction cost value of single-family homes at risk (4) ($ millions)
Rank	State	Category 1	Category 2	Category 3	Category 4	Category 5
1	Florida	$73,255.3	$225,758.2	$372,102.5	$482,986.8	$581,641.5
2	New York	30,075.0	94,513.9	145,839.3	194,358.1	(3)
3	Louisiana	16,343.1	47,945.9	151,667.9	182,479.3	200,785.2
4	New Jersey	27,035.0	84,599.0	119,106.5	149,676.0	(3)
5	Texas	7,399.5	22,434.1	50,758.8	80,141.0	112,087.7
6	Virginia	6,046.8	22,878.8	58,270.3	87,017.7	98,744.9
7	South Carolina	10,377.6	34,543.8	54,837.2	74,049.4	85,214.8
8	North Carolina	7,094.4	20,928.6	35,570.1	46,843.7	57,973.4
9	Massachusetts	2,381.6	12,625.7	28,897.8	46,442.6	(3)
10	Georgia	2,980.9	14,662.9	27,079.1	35,130.6	37,325.4
11	Maryland	4,046.8	13,834.2	23,084.4	29,768.4	(3)
12	Connecticut	2,429.5	9,913.0	15,895.6	22,659.2	(3)
13	Mississippi	1,947.1	6,186.9	12,375.8	18,241.7	20,554.7
14	Pennsylvania	214.4	5,013.7	14,187.6	20,823.0	(3)
15	Delaware	3,159.6	8,797.1	14,026.2	19,121.3	(3)
16	Alabama	1,143.4	2,917.3	5,387.9	7,534.0	9,888.1
17	Rhode Island	351.3	2,039.2	4,669.2	7,321.1	(3)
18	Maine	1,294.4	1,970.7	3,031.9	4,738.2	(3)
19	New Hampshire	33.9	693.9	1,395.2	1,988.6	(3)
	Total homes potentially affected	$197,609.5	$632,257.0	$1,138,183.1	$1,511,320.6	$1,701,112.2

(1) The risk categories are cumulative and increase in value from Category 1 to Category 5. Category 1 represents the higher risk of damage from a weak hurricane; Category 5 includes Categories 1 to 4 and the low risk of damage from a Category 5 hurricane.
(2) Measured in units.
(3) Storm surge risk for Category 5 storms for homes on the northeastern Atlantic Coast is not shown due to the extremely low probability of a Category 5 storm affecting these areas.
(4) Represents the cost to completely rebuild including labor and materials by geographic location.

Source: CoreLogic®, a property data and analytics company.

View Archived Tables

Other Resources I.I.I. Facts & Stats: Flood Insurance I.I.I. Facts & Stats: Hurricanes I.I.I. Issues Updates: Catastrophes I.I.I. Issues Updates: Hurricane and Windstorm Deductibles South Carolina Wind and Underwriting Association Website

View All

Culture & Talent

Fact file: South Carolina hurricane insurance

June 2020

Top 10 Costliest Hurricanes In The United States (1)

Storm Surge Risk By State By Number Of Single-Family Homes and Reconstruction Value, 2019 (1)

Related

The Insurance Industry’s Month of Giving 2026

TRIA: Talking Points

What is El Niño and why is it important?

Excess and Surplus: State of the Risk