Top 10 states at risk of hurricane storm surge damage in 2018

There are myriad risks associated with a storm surge, or the flooding and tsunami-like conditions caused by low pressure weather systems. Consider that the deadliest storm surge on record, which happened in 1970 during the Bhola cyclone near the Bay of Bengal, killed roughly 500,000 people, and that the Hurricane Sandy storm surge in 2012 resulted in flooding as high as 14 feet in New York City. Storm surges — and the devastation left in their wake — can be even more disheartening as they can occur in the hours just after an area has already suffered a severe weather event, when locals may have been tricked into thinking they could exhale. Fresh research from the Irvine, Calif.-based financial analytics and business intelligence company CoreLogic reveals just how harmful (and expensive) storm surge damage can be. The "2018 CoreLogic Storm Surge Report" includes the following takeaways for insurers and their policyholders living and doing business in affected states:

• 9 million homes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are at risk for hurricane storm surge damage
• Those homes have $1.6 trillion in potential reconstruction costs
• Florida, Louisiana and Texas top the list of states with the most homes at risk

"While industry predictions for this year's storm season indicate average activity levels, associated storm surge risk remains an important consideration for residential and commercial properties in the 19 states analyzed," Dr. Tom Jeffery, senior hazard scientist at CoreLogic, said in a press release. "Depending on the location of a storm's landfall and that area's population density and reconstruction costs, lower Category storms can cause just as much damage as storms in higher categories." The photos above provide an closer look at the research. See also: Top 10 U.S. metro areas at risk for hurricane storm surge damage Weather CSI: Verifying the impact of wind, rain & storm surge