According to catastrophe risk analysis company, Risk Management Solutions (RMS), a new study shows that a repeat of the 1927 Great Mississippi Flood would cost between $130 and $160 billion in economic damages.

The study was published on the 80th anniversary of the flood and shows that almost two-thirds of the total losses would be a result of residential damage, with another third from commercial and industrial property damage. Louisiana would sustain nearly 40% of the total loss, but other states along the river would also experience damages.

According to RMS, research suggests that climate change and global warming increase the potential for exceptional flows on river basins such as the Mississippi, and has an impact on how flood risk should be managed.

“Levees have been built stronger and higher since 1927, but the bed of the Mississippi River has also risen in many places,” commented Dr. Robert Muir-Wood, chief research officer at RMS in a release. “With stronger levees there should be fewer failures, but as we saw in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, relatively short sections of levee failure can have truly catastrophic consequences — the taller the levee, the greater the speed and force of the flooding.”

The 1927 flood, which inundated parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee, killed approximately 250 people and caused $250 to $350 million in losses at the time.

No compensation was available for those who lost homes and businesses within the flood extent in 1927, but the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) would cover a portion of the losses if the disaster were to happen today.

The full report is available at http://www.rms.com/Publications/1927_MississippiFlood.pdf.

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RMS Study Compares Flood Damages

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