The present estimate of losses arising from Hurricane Helene, which struck Florida and Georgia and prompted flooding within the Carolinas and Tennessee, is between US$20 to US$34 billion, in accordance with Moody’s Analytics, with US$15-$26 billion being property harm. Of this, AM Finest is estimating USD5 billion shall be insured. This exhibits the persevering with pattern of insurers transferring away from high-risk areas, beginning way back to the 1960’s, when a typical hurricane would have the trade overlaying round 60% of the losses.
60 individuals are reported to have perished, with tens of millions of houses with out energy.
What we’re seeing this time is consistent with Hurricane Ian in 2022, when over 20 electrical automobiles caught hearth after being submerged or partially submerged by saltwater from flooding or storm surge. This example turns into worse if the automotive is inside a storage that’s a part of a house or related construction. This places huge stress on the emergency providers, who’re already stretched coping with the consequences of the storm.
There are lots of movies on YouTube reporting on the problem. Here’s a hyperlink to at least one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReD1-oHfSyU&pp=ygUZZXYgZmlyZXMgZm9sbG93aW5nIGhlbGVuZQpercent3Dpercent3D
It’s not simply electrical automobiles that may catch hearth after being inundated by saltwater however any lithium batteries, starting from golf carts to energy instruments, computer systems and telephones.
The message from hearth departments within the US is to take away electrical automobiles which were inundated by saltwater to an space the place it’s a minimum of 15 meters away from any flamable materials. For smaller batteries, the required distance is much less, however the significance of eradicating them out of a houses, places of work, or different buildings as soon as broken by saltwater shouldn’t be ignored.
I’m not in opposition to electrical automobiles. Now we have one within the household, and whereas they’ve nice advantages, in addition they include dangers that have to be understood and acted upon. The foremost takeaways are batteries which were broken from any trigger, together with inundation by saltwater, shouldn’t be positioned on cost, have to be saved properly away out of your houses or different buildings, and changed as quickly as doable.
As an apart, I consider care must be taken with lithium batteries on or round pleasure craft as a result of threat of fireside from broken batteries.
