Hurricane Irene Strikes The Eastern Seaboard: An Overview Of The Facts And Coverage Issues

On the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, another such storm was devastating the eastern coastline of the United States. Irene – the first hurricane of the 2011 season – was thankfully not as destructive as the 2005 storm that ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast area. Nevertheless, Irene was a powerful and destructive storm that hit areas of the country that seldom see this kind of event. Irene is likely to generate several billion dollars in insurance claims over the coming weeks, as policyholders seek to recover for losses attributable to flooding, windstorm and loss of electricity. Causation issues will arise when the damage flows from some combination of such perils, and insurers will also see claims caused by mandatory evacuation orders and claims for additional living expenses. Finally, the impact of named storm deductibles must be factored into any compensability calculations.

This report reviews the facts as they are known two weeks after Irene and then briefly surveys some of the case law implicated by the foregoing claims issues.

THE HURRICANE

Irene was a powerful Atlantic storm that caused flooding, tornadoes and other wind damage, and widespread power failures along a swath of the Eastern seaboard. The destruction stretched from North Carolina and Virginia through the Mid-Atlantic states and into New York and New England. The storm struck between Saturday, Aug. 27, and Monday, Aug. 29.

The Hurricane's Track

The storm formed as a tropical cyclone in the mid-Atlantic early on Aug. 20, and it was upgraded to a tropical storm at 6 p.m. EDT that afternoon. By Aug. 22, shortly after passing over Puerto Rico, it reached Category I strength (74-95 mph). It passed just north of the island of Hispaniola, strengthening to a Category II (96-110 mph) as it did so, and then it crossed the Turks and Caicos Islands. As it bore down on and passed through the Bahamas, its strength reached Category III (111-130 mph).

Irene then turned due north, heading for the Outer Banks, and weakened as it encountered cooler water. It initially made landfall on the U.S. mainland at Cape Lookout in North Carolina at 7:30 a.m. EDT on Saturday, Aug. 27, as a Category I storm. It tracked back out over the Atlantic on the afternoon of the same day, and moved north-northeastward off the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and past the Delmarva Peninsula. It then made a second landfall at Little Egg Inlet on the coast of New Jersey at 5:35 a.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 28, as a weak Category I storm (75 mph). It was the first hurricane to make landfall in New Jersey since 1903.

After traveling along the Jersey shore, Irene turned back out to sea again and then made a third U.S. landfall as a strong tropical storm (39-73 mph) with winds of 65 mph in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, N.Y., at 9 a.m. EDT on Aug. 28. The storm continued to travel north-northeastward over Connecticut and northern New England, ultimately weakening and losing its status as a tropical storm while over Maine at 11 p.m. EDT on Aug. 29. It then entered Quebec, crossed the St. Lawrence River and Newfoundland and disappeared into the Labrador Sea.

Safety Measures

In the U.S., 65 million people in 14 states and the District of Columbia were in the potentially affected area. States of emergency were ultimately declared from South Carolina to Maine.

North Carolina ordered mandatory evacuation of three counties, including the entire Outer Banks. Virginia evacuated low-lying areas such as Virginia Beach, and New Jersey ordered evacuation for all of Cape May County and all the seaside communities in Atlantic and Ocean counties. It was the first mandatory evacuation in the history of Atlantic City. Overall, 2,285,000 people were relocated in six states: North Carolina (300,000), Virginia (200,000), Maryland (315,000), Delaware (100,000), New Jersey (1,000,000) and New York (370,000).

The U.S. naval vessels at Norfolk Naval Shipyard and in nearby Newport News – including four aircraft carriers – put to sea to ride out the storm in the Atlantic Ocean.

Philadelphia shut down its Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority commuter railroad services at midnight on Saturday, Aug. 27, and the New Jersey Transit Authority suspended all rail and bus services on Saturday and Sunday as well. New York City ordered a complete shutdown of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority – the nation's largest transit system – for the first time in its history, at noon on Saturday. Boston also closed all public transportation offered by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority at 8 a.m. EDT on Sunday.

Irene caused the postponement of six major league baseball games, one National Football League preseason game and three major league soccer games.

Damage In The Caribbean

As it passed Puerto Rico, Irene caused severe flooding and downed trees and power lines that ultimately left almost a million people without electricity. The island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) also experienced extensive flooding, and 37,000 residents were forced to flee their homes.

The eye of the storm passed directly over several islands in the Bahamas when the hurricane was a Category III with winds at 120 mph, though it missed the main population centers on New Providence and Grand Bahama islands. Gusts reached 140 mph, and the island chain saw as much as 13 inches of rain, which led to widespread flooding and wind damage. It was the worst storm to hit the Bahamas since Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

Damage In The United States Generally

Irene caused extensive flooding and downed trees and power lines up and down the Eastern seaboard. Trees toppled in many areas because the ground was already saturated from earlier storms. August was the wettest month ever recorded in southeastern Pennsylvania, for example. Although wind damage was less than expected, the hurricane spawned a number of destructive tornadoes. Ten major rivers measured record flood levels.

At the height of the storm, 7.5 million households and businesses were without power. One of the continuing controversies caused by Irene involves the inordinate length of time it took to restore power to many affected areas. As of Aug, 31, three days after the storm, some 842,000 households were still without electricity.

On Labor Day, Sept. 5, the death toll stood at 55, with eight fatalities in the Caribbean, one in Canada, and 46 in the U.S.

In the southern states, damage was generally moderate. As it passed along Florida's eastern coastline, Irene killed two surfers and caused beach erosion. South Carolina experienced gale-force winds from the storm's outer bands, which led to scattered power outages.

Areas of eastern North Carolina received 10 to 14 inches of rain, and tornados and hurricane-force winds uprooted trees and caused extensive flooding that damaged or destroyed numerous cotton and tobacco crops. Six people died in the state: three were struck by falling trees, two died in traffic accidents and one died of a heart attack while boarding up his house.

Virginia also experienced tornadoes and high winds as the storm passed to the east of Hampton Roads, resulting in widespread power outages. There were four deaths from falling trees.

Damage in the Mid-Atlantic states was moderate, though the storm left hundreds of thousands without power in Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Those areas saw as much as 10 to 11 inches of rain, which led to localized flooding and crop damage. Eight deaths are attributed to Irene in the Mid-Atlantic states: half were from falling trees, while three drowned and one was killed in a traffic accident.

Damage In New Jersey

The most extensively damaged areas were New Jersey, New York and Vermont, and the entire Garden State was subsequently declared a federal disaster area. Despite Irene's landfall on the Jersey shore, damage in New Jersey's coastal areas was minimal – it was the inland portion of the state that suffered the brunt of the storm.

New Jersey saw rainfall of up to 11 inches, and there was severe flooding along six of the state's largest rivers (Raritan, Millstone, Passaic, Rockaway, Rahway and Delaware). Paterson's Passaic River was still well above flood stage when President Barack Obama visited the city on Sunday, Sept. 4.

More than 1.5 million people lost electricity, and the last of these power outages wasn't repaired until Monday, Sept. 5. Portions of Amtrak's main Northeast Corridor line were washed out or covered with debris, and the National Railway Passenger Corporation shut down Acela Express service between Boston and Washington. The Philadelphia-New York portion of the Northeast Corridor wasn't reopened until Wednesday, Aug. 31, and service on the Trenton line was not restored until Friday, Sept. 2.

New Jersey saw 10 deaths from the storm.

Damage In New York And New England

New York experienced flooding along the Hudson and Ramapo rivers, and flash floods in the Catskill and Adirondack mountains caused landslides and washed out roads and bridges. The Holland Tunnel was closed due to flooding on the New Jersey side, and power outages left more than half a million people in the dark. There were a number of deaths, including boaters and windsurfers who chose to venture out in the storm.

Connecticut also saw flooding and power outages that affected three-quarters of a million people. Western Massachusetts was hit hard by high winds that toppled trees, and heavy rains caused flooding along both the Deerfield River and the Connecticut River and its tributaries. A quarter...