FloodFlash in January: our latest tips, news, and updates

Authored by Floodflash

January has flown by, which means it’s time for a round-up of what’s happened so far in 2024 – from our US state expansion, a snowmelt primer, and what the Lloyd’s of London Chairman thinks about FloodFlash.

US expansion

The biggest news – we announced our expansion into 10 new states. As a reminder, Delaware, Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, Vermont and Massachusetts all join Florida, Texas, California, Virginia and Louisiana in having no minimum premium. All other states have had the minimum premium reduced to $25,000.

Our US team can help with risks across the country, with no minimum premium in 15 states.

An active UK storm season

Since Christmas, we’ve had four major named storms hit the UK – Gerrit, Henk, Isha, and Jocelyn. Storm Henk caused damage to over 2000 properties, and resulted in an estimated £150m in insured losses. It’s been an active start to the storm season – just two more named storms between now and August would mark a new record.

Parametric predictions

We asked our Broker Success Teams what they thought 2024 had in store. For the US, growing losses from Severe Convective Storms (SCS) and Hurricane seasons were the fuel behind the team’s expert predictions. For the UK, themes included an increased growth of parametric insurance and improved understanding of flood risk. You can take a look at all the team’s predictions here.

Snowmelt and flooding

We are intent on spreading the word and forging new broker connections. Sadly, whilst Kristen was able to venture out to some very productive sessions, both Chris and Ben were both grounded by heavy snow. Here’s hoping that February will allow us to get a little further away from the desks and together with you all.

We took the opportunity from the cold temperatures to explore the causes and impact of snowmelt on flooding across the country. After all, it’s not just the Northwestern states that need to be wary of the water that snowpacks release in the spring. Here’s a reminder of the quick guide.

A snowmelt flood is simply a flood where melting snow is a major source of the water. While northern US states are most at risk, southern states can also be impacted as rivers swell with melted snow.

Where to find us:

This year, both our US and UK teams are busy attending conferences, awards evenings, and broker events. We’ve even got a flagship FloodFlash event in the pipeline – stay tuned for more details!

In February, our US team is at the Lockton TX Real Estate and Hospitality Summit on the 21st. Our UK team are at the Insurance CX Awards and National Insurance Awards, along with the Bravo Networks Conference. Finally, on the 27th, don’t miss Commercial Director Nyasha Kuwana speaking in session two of Insurance Innovators: Fraud and Claims. You can see all of our confirmed events here.

In the news:

With flooding affecting large parts of the US and UK in January, there was a fair share of flood news – here’s some of the highlights:

• Insurance marketplace Policygenius has named Virginia Beach, New Orleans, Tampa, Miami and Houston as cities that will be most impacted by climate change by 2050
• FloodFlash features alongside AXA, Swiss Re, and Zurich in climate change and parametric article: ‘Insurers seek shelter from climate change storm’ 
• Coastal California faced waves as high as 20ft over the new year, prompting floods and evacuations (Reuters)
• Lloyd’s of London Chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown said “This is what great insurance is all about” when he spotted FloodFlash in Time
• Aon released their annual Climate and Catastrophe report with plenty of great insight on the threat that natural disasters pose
• The UK have launched a £6.5m flood research centre led by the University of Southampton to better understand and manage flooding
• The Public Accounts Committee Report concluded that there is no effective strategy in place to make the UK resilient against extreme weather
• The parliamentary reception for the APPG for Flood Prevention emphasised the importance of making communities more resilient to flooding