Now it’s time to put some numbers on the damage caused by this season’s two hurricanes, Harvey and Irma, and they aren’t good. In fact, BoatUS says that 63,500 recreational boats, worth $655 million, were damaged or destroyed by the two storms. That dollar amount includes damage just to boats themselves; it doesn’t count damage to marinas, waterfront property or anything else. By comparison, five years ago Hurricane Sandy caused the largest loss ever, with 65,000 boats destroyed or damaged.
This hurricane season Irma hit 50,000 recreational boats, causing $500 million in damage, while Harvey hit 13,500 boats and caused $155 million in damage. Rick Wilson, the VP of claims for BoatUS marine insurance, said the two storms were completely different. “The boats that were hit hardest by Harvey were located on a relatively small slice of Texas coast,” he said, “while we saw damage to recreational vessels from Irma in every corner of Florida.”
Still, Wilson says, Irma could have been much worse. While it hit Big Pine Key and Marathon in the Florida Keys as a Category 4 storm and caused a great deal of damage, it lost strength as it approached the mainland and swept up Florida.
For more: https://www.boatus.com/pressroom/release.asp?ID=1338
