Hurricane Charley

Post Landfall 2 | Summary
Posting Date: August 17, 2004, 3:30:00 PM

On Sunday, August 15, AIR dispatched a post-disaster survey team to areas hit by Hurricane Charley. Their preliminary findings, along with additional information now available from NOAA’s National Hurricane Center, are being analyzed here in Boston and used to further refine AIR’s estimates of insured loss from the storm. As Hurricane Charley approached land last Friday, it became more compact and tightly wound. As that happens, hurricanes naturally become more intense; their rotational winds can become extreme, particularly near the center of the storm. In line with the storm’s compactness, the AIR team has reported back that the path of destruction is extremely narrow but, within that path, damage is extensive. The team, led by Dr. Atul Khanduri, has surveyed coastal areas hit hardest, including Lee and Charlotte Counties. In line with what had been predicted by the AIR hurricane model, the worst of the damage occurred around Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte. Captiva and Sanibel Island are scheduled to reopen tomorrow, and local officials report that nearly 100% of structures there have been affected, again an outcome that is in line with the AIR model results. As a result of the storm’s relatively fast forward speed, hurricane force winds were maintained throughout the storm’s path across Florida. Moderate damage has been observed as far inland as Orlando. Five new scenarios are now posted on the Scenarios page of this web site, where clients can also view wind speed and loss maps. Note that losses are for the U.S. only. In addition, event sets representing the full range of simulated scenarios are now available for download.

Post Landfall 2 | Downloads
Posting Date: August 17, 2004, 3:30:00 PM