Ophelia leaves less than $800 million in damages

The remnants of tropical storm Ophelia have tracked eastward, away from Newfoundland, and the Canadian Hurricane Centre of Environment Canada has lifted all warnings for inland areas of Newfoundland.Once a Category 1 storm that swept through Northern Carolina last week, Ophelia has now been downgraded by the Canadian Hurricane Centre to a “post-tropical storm,” with gale force winds of around 83 km/h. Only light rain remains over Newfoundland.Ophelia dumped 70 millimetres of rain on a good portion of Nova Scotia’s mainland on Sept. 17, and showered the eastern regions of Newfoundland with about 40 millimeteres of rain the following day. Anticipating heavy rains on the basis of destruction in North Carolina, Canadian insurers such as The Co-operators in Moncton, New Brunswick, and Royal & SunAlliance issued warnings on Sept. 16 that provided consumers with safety tips to protect against damage in the event of a hurricane. The main brunt of Ophelia hit North Carolina last week, and catastrophe modeler AIR Worldwide estimates insured losses from Hurricane Ophelia arising mainly from the U.S. eastern seaboard will not exceed $800 million.”Though its strongest winds remained over the Atlantic, Ophelia will still impact the insurance industry,” said Dr. Jayanta Guin, vice president for research and modeling at AIR Worldwide Corporation. “With an average forward speed of only about three miles per hour, many areas [in North Carolina] were subject to hurricane and tropical storm force winds for more than 24 hours. This continued pounding weakens building components and ultimately leads to more damage than would normally be expected at these wind speeds.” AIR expects widespread damage to roof shingles, cladding, and other non-structural components, such as awnings. Additional property damage is anticipated from trees felled by the storm. Power was knocked out to more than 200,000 homes and businesses, which is expected to result in some business interruption losses.