Natural Disaster Statistics: Which Insurance Should You Have in Your State?

The East Coast is now being hit with tornadoes and flash floods. Late last year, severe storms devastated Florida. Natural disasters affect millions of people in the U.S. According to the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters: natural disasters claim 68,000 lives around the world each year.

According to the Weather Channel, in 2021, there were a total of 146 U.S. fatalities reported due to winter storms and cold waves alone; In total, there were about 770 total U.S. fatalities due to natural disasters.

Tornados, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, winter storms and hurricanes often claim lives and cause great destruction to personal property, and we see more extreme weather events each year. In 2021 alone, the U.S. also saw $92 billion in insured losses so it makes sense to assume that there were billions in losses for the uninsured too – losses the victims probably had to shoulder alone if they didn’t have homeowners insurance.

Here are more natural disasters insights and relevant insurance information to help you protect yourself and your family.

Which Natural Disaster Claimed the Most Lives in the U.S in 2021?

Where you live dictates how prone you are to property losses and the danger of fatalities. Whether you’re in a cold climate or a hot one, or one that tends to see strong winds, there is a peril that is common where you live.

The following numbers of fatalities and associated perils is based on The Weather Channel’s records for 2021:

Natural Disasters in the U.S	Fatalities	Covered by Homeowners Insurance?
Flood	146	No, you must buy a separate policy
Lightning	11	Yes
Tornado	104	Yes
Hurricane	12	Yes, but there is a separate hurricane deductible in states prone to hurricanes
Heat	190	Yes, in the case of fire, subsidence and broken electronics
Winter	40	Yes, in the case of freezing pipes, heavy snow
Cold	106	Yes, in the case of freezing pipes
Wind	56	Yes

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In 2021, there were about 770 total U.S. fatalities due to natural disasters.

Which States Had the Most Losses From Natural Disasters?

Extreme weather events are expensive for everyone, whether it’s the homeowner who loses everything, including the car, or the insurer who will have to pay out many people in a devastated area, causing insurance prices to increase for everyone in that area as well.

The property losses in 2022 were staggering, with $100 billion worth of insured damages paid out by insurance companies in one year!

Keep in mind that property losses to people who had no homeowners or renters insurance was not at all figured into these already shocking numbers, which would perhaps double if all was included.

See how many injuries and fatalities there were in 2021 below:

State	Fatalities	Injuries	Total Insured Property Loss (in Millions)
Alabama	22	1	9.08
Alaska	0	10	8.21
Arizona	61	9	105.04
Arkansas	2	9	31.77
California	30	28	300.89
Colorado	18	33	801.17
Connecticut	1	2	7.72
Delaware	2	6	3.60
District of Columbia	0	5	.74
Florida	33	31	48.86
Georgia	3	32	39.12
Hawaii	1	2	52.82
Idaho	6	29	6.06
Illinois	14	19	39.13
Indiana	5	6	54.79
Iowa	1	2	48.10
Kansas	5	4	13.67
Kentucky	81	622	413.16
Louisiana	13	12	1,2661.78
Maine	2	0	5.28
Maryland	5	8	11.45
Massachusetts	1	4	9.35
Michigan	0	14	185.80
Minnesota	3	5	43.31
Mississippi	7	16	50.12
Missouri	6	36	20.64
Montana	2	2	7.01
Nebraska	0	2	167.54
Nevada	9	4	3.50
New Hampshire	1	3	5.72
New Jersey	29	28	238.56
New Mexico	6	13	24.02
New York	19	10	522.44
North Carolina	13	29	220.77
North Dakota	0	0	10.23
Ohio	8	2	10.73
Oklahoma	2	46	7.91
Oregon	126	4	26.47
Pennsylvania	10	16	402.40
Rhode Island	2	0	2.15
South Carolina	2	2	2.62
South Dakota	0	1	118.18
Tennessee	38	58	186.26
Texas	103	130	1,852.15
Utah	16	18	25.55
Vermont	1	3	7.79
Virginia	3	11	15.41
Washington	17	7	85.06
West Virginia	0	2	3.39
Wisconsin	8	6	12.25
Wyoming	5	1	2.96

*Note that some states had unexpected losses like the wildfires that burned hundreds of homes in Colorado and the snow dumped on Texas by Winter Storm Uri. The 2022 $9 billion loss in Florida caused by Hurricane Ian was not tallied in these 2021 findings.

The property losses around the country are staggering, with $100 billion worth of insured damages paid out by insurance companies in 2022!

Worst Hurricane Fatalities, Injuries and Losses

Hurricane Katrina had a mindblowing number of fatalities, 1,800 deaths, but the insured property loss of almost $90,000 is nothing compared to the $67 billion in insured losses from Hurricane Ian, which claimed 101 lives.

Year	Storm	Insured Property Losses (value today)	Fatalities	Injuries
2005	Hurricane Katrina	$90,000,000,000	1,836	7,500
2022	Hurricane Ian	$67,000,000,000	101	*
2021	Hurricane Ida	$75,000,000,000	107	*
2012	Hurricane Sandy	$70,000,000,000	147	706
2017	Hurricane Harvey	$75,000,000,000	103	*

*Numbers of injuries were not reported for Hurricanes Ida and Harvey by World Vision or other trustworthy sources.

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The Top 10 Deadliest Natural Disasters in American History

Whether it was an earthquake, an ice storm, a heat wave or hurricane, the following natural disasters cost billions and took thousands of lives. In many of these events, only survivors who were insured were able to rebuild their lives right away:

Storm	Date	Property Damages	Fatalities
Winter Storm Uri	February 13-17, 2021	$195.6 billion	246
Hurricane Katrina	August 29, 2005	$150 billion	1836
Hurricane Galveston	September 8, 1900	$105 billion	8,000-10,000
Dust Bowl	1930s	$100 billion	3,000
Hurricane Ida	August 26, 2021	$75 billion	107
Heat Wave of 1988	Summer 1988	$61 billion	5,000
Hurricane Ian	September 29, 2022	$67 billion	101
Heat Wave of 1980	Summer 1980	$48 billion	1,700
Great San Francisco Fire and Earthquake	April 18, 1906	$30 billion	3,000
Lake Okeechobee Hurricane	September 16, 1928	$18 billion	2,500

If a natural disaster strikes your area, it’s easier to rebuild your life if you have homeowners insurance.

Common Disasters in Each State and Insurance That Pays for Losses

Some common disasters, like floods and earthquakes, have their own insurance products, so don’t expect homeowners insurance to cover damage related to those perils. A DIC policy is also sold separately for regions prone to landslides.

State	Common Disasters	Insurance Coverage for Your Region
Alabama	Severe storms, tropical storms and hurricanes, floods, wildfires, tornadoes, extreme heat, landslides,	Homeowners insurance (with a separate hurricane deductible), flood insurance
Alaska	Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, submarine landslides, or onshore landslides	Homeowners, earthquake insurance, DIC policy for landslides
Arizona	Lightning, strong winds, flooding, and dust storms	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance
Arkansas	Tornadoes, widespread wind damage, flash flooding, and heavy snow/ice	Homeowners insurance, and flood insurance
California	Wildfires, floods, landslides and mudslides, earthquakes, and tsunamis	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance, earthquake insurance, and DIC policy
Colorado	Droughts, wildfires, floods, and tornadoes	Homeowners insurance, and flood insurance
Connecticut	Severe thunderstorms, flash floods, snowstorms, hurricanes and tornadoes	Homeowners insurance (with a separate hurricane deductible), flood insurance
Delaware	tropical storms and hurricanes, nor'easters, winter storms, severe thunderstorms, floods, and extreme heat	Homeowners insurance (with a separate hurricane deductible), and flood insurance
District of Columbia	Wildfires, floods, severe storms, landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, and volcanoes	Homeowners insurance, DIC policy, earthquake insurance, volcanic eruption insurance, and flood insurance
Florida	Tropical storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, and floods	Homeowners insurance (with a separate hurricane deductible), and flood insurance
Georgia	Hurricanes, tornadoes, severe storms, wildfires and floods	Homeowners insurance (with a separate hurricane deductible), and flood insurance
Hawaii	Tropical storms, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, earthquakes, landslides, and tsunamis	Homeowners insurance (with a separate hurricane deductible), earthquake insurance, DIC policy and flood insurance
Idaho	Wildfires, winter storms, drought, landslides, earthquakes, and flooding	Homeowners insurance, DIC policy, earthquake insurance and flood insurance
Illinois	Thunderstorms, tornadoes, lightning, floods and flash floods, damaging winds and large hail	Homeowners insurance and flood insurance
Indiana	Severe storms, floods, winter storms, tornadoes, and landslides	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance and a DIC policy.
Iowa	Tornados, winter storms, snow storms, and floods	Homeowners insurance and flood insurance.
Kansas	Severe storms, floods, tornadoes, winter storms, wildfires, and landslides	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance and a DIC policy
Kentucky	Drought, flood, wildfires, hail, tornados, earthquake, extreme heat, winter storms, and extreme cold	Homeowners insurance, earthquake insurance, and flood insurance.
Louisiana	Floods, hurricanes, severe storms, tornadoes, extreme heat and drought, wildfires, ice storms, and landslides	Homeowners insurance (with a separate hurricane deductible), flood insurance and a DIC policy
Maine	Severe storms, floods, winter storms, hurricanes, landslides, and drought	Homeowners insurance (with a separate hurricane deductible), flood insurance, DIC policy
Maryland	Floods, hurricanes, severe storms, winter storms, tornadoes, wildfires, landslides, and extreme heat	Homeowners insurance (with a separate hurricane deductible), flood insurance and a DIC policy
Massachusetts	Severe storms, hurricanes, winter storms, floods, wildfires, landslides, and tsunamis	Homeowners insurance (with a separate hurricane deductible), flood insurance, DIC policy
Michigan	Floods, severe storms, winter storms, wildfires, and tornadoes	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance
Minnesota	Floods, severe storms, tornadoes, wildfires, winter storms, heat waves, and landslides	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance and a DIC policy
Mississippi	Severe storms, hurricanes, extreme heat and drought, tornadoes, floods, wildfires, winter storms, landslides, and earthquakes	Homeowners insurance (with a separate hurricane deductible), flood insurance, DIC policy, earthquake insurance
Missouri	Severe storms, floods, severe winter weather, tornadoes, and earthquakes	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance and earthquake insurance
Montana	Wildfires, floods, winter storms, severe storms, extreme heat and drought, earthquakes, landslides, and tornadoes	Homeowners insurance, earthquake insurance, flood insurance DIC policy
Nebraska	Severe storms, floods, tornadoes, winter storms, heat waves, and drought	Homeowners insurance, possibly with a wind deductible, flood insurance
Nevada	Wildfires, floods, earthquakes, heatwaves and drought, extreme winter weather, severe storms, and landslides	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance, earthquake insurance and DIC policy
New Hampshire	Severe storms, floods, winter storms, hurricanes, nor'easters, wildfires, landslides and tornadoes	Homeowners insurance (possibly with a separate wind deductible) flood insurance, DIC policy
New Jersey	Severe storms, tropical storms and hurricanes, floods, winter storms, wildfires, extreme heat, drought, and landslides	Homeowners insurance (with a separate hurricane deductible), flood insurance, DIC policy
New Mexico	Wildfires, floods, severe storms, extreme heat and drought, landslides, winter storms, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanos and tropical storms	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance, volcanic eruption insurance, DIC policy, and earthquake insurance,
New York	Severe storms, floods, winter storms, tropical storms, and wildfires	Homeowners insurance, with a separate hurricane deductible, flood insurance
North Carolina	Tropical storms and hurricanes, severe storms, floods, wildfires, winter storms, tornadoes, tsunamis, extreme heat and drought, and landslides	Homeowners insurance (with a separate hurricane deductible), flood insurance, and DIC policy
North Dakota	Floods, severe storms, winter storms, wildfires, extreme heat and drought, tornadoes, and landslides	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance, DIC policy
Ohio	Severe storms, floods, tornadoes, winter storms, and landslides	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance, DIC policy
Oklahoma	Wildfires, severe storms, tornadoes, floods, winter storms, extreme heat, and droughts	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance
Oregon	Wildfires, severe storms, floods, droughts, earthquakes, winter storms, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance, earthquake insurance, volcanic eruption insurance, DIC policy
Pennsylvania	Floods, severe storms, tropical storms, winter storms, tornadoes, landslides, wildfires, and earthquakes	Homeowners insurance (with a separate hurricane deductible), DIC policy, and earthquake insurance
Rhode Island	Tropical storms and hurricanes, winter storms, severe storms, floods, earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, and wildfires	Homeowners insurance (with a separate hurricane deductible), flood insurance, and DIC policy
South Carolina	Hurricanes, severe storms, floods, wildfires, extreme heat and drought, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, and landslides	Homeowners insurance (separate hurricane deductible), earthquake insurance, flood insurance and DIC policy
South Dakota	Severe storms, floods, winter storms, droughts, tornadoes, wildfires, landslides, and earthquakes	Homeowners insurance, DIC policy and earthquake insurance
Tennessee	Severe storms, thunder and lightning, heavy rains, hail, ice storms, winter storms with heavy snow, tornadoes, floods, wildfires, landslides, earthquakes, and tropical storms	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance, DIC policy, and earthquake insurance
Texas	Wildfires, floods, hurricanes, severe storms, tornadoes, extreme heat, and landslides	Homeowners insurance (with a separate hurricane deductible), flood insurance, and DIC policy
Utah	Wildfires, earthquakes, floods, severe storms, winter storms, extreme heat, and drought	Homeowners insurance, earthquake insurance, flood insurance
Vermont	Severe storms, floods, winter storms, tropical storms, hurricanes, and landslides	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance, and DIC policy
Virginia	Severe storms, tropical storms, floods, wildfires, tornadoes, winter storms, extreme heat, landslides, drought, and earthquakes	Homeowners insurance (with a separate hurricane deductible), flood insurance, DIC policy, and earthquake insurance
Washington	Wildfires, floods, severe storms, landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, and volcanoes	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance, DIC policy, earthquake insurance, volcanic eruption insurance
West Virginia	Floods, severe storms, winter storms, wildfires, and landslides	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance, and DIC policy
Wisconsin	Severe storms, floods, tornadoes, winter storms, extreme heat and drought, wildfires, and landslides	Homeowners insurance, flood insurance, and DIC policy
Wyoming	Wildfires, floods, severe storms, landslides, droughts, winter storms, and earthquakes	Homeowners insurance, DIC policy and earthquake insurance

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Tornados, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, winter storms and hurricanes often claim lives and cause great destruction each year.

Natural Disasters FAQs

What is the most common natural disaster?

Floods are the most common natural disaster. Floods are caused by heavy rainfalls, melting snow or storm surges from coastal regions.

What’s the hardest natural disaster to predict?

Earthquakes are the hardest natural disaster to predict and can therefore be deadly. Earthquakes are not covered in standard home insurance policies; You must buy a separate policy.

Where do natural disasters happen most often?

California is the state with the most natural disasters, with 284 federally declared disasters since 1953.

Does Homeowners insurance cover natural disasters?

Homeowners insurance covers many, but not all, natural disasters. Flood insurance and earthquake insurance are sold separately and so are DIC policies, if you live in a region prone to mudslides and landslides.

Key Takeaways

There is a type of insurance for most natural disasters, and homeowners insurance covers many of them.
Catastrophic natural disasters can happen in any state.
Rebuilding after a natural disaster is expensive, so it’s important to be insured with the right products and the right carrier.

If a natural disaster strikes your area, it’s easier to rebuild your life if you have homeowners insurance. If you’re not covered or if you’re looking to buy a more comprehensive policy without paying too much, compare rates. You may even end up saving hundreds of dollars if you’ve never filed a claim or missed payments. Start receiving your free home insurance quotes after entering your zip code below and answering a few questions.

Natural Disaster Statistics: Which Insurance Should You Have in Your State?

Fran Majidi

On This Page

Which Natural Disaster Claimed the Most Lives in the U.S in 2021?

Get Personalized Home Insurance Quotes Here

Which States Had the Most Losses From Natural Disasters?

Worst Hurricane Fatalities, Injuries and Losses

The Top 10 Deadliest Natural Disasters in American History

Common Disasters in Each State and Insurance That Pays for Losses

Get Personalized Home Insurance Quotes Here

Natural Disasters FAQs

What is the most common natural disaster?

What’s the hardest natural disaster to predict?

Where do natural disasters happen most often?

Does Homeowners insurance cover natural disasters?

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