SAN DIEGO, Oct. 22, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- HazardHub, the USA's fastest-growing supplier of geospatial risk data, a 2020 Gartner Cool Company, and current Lloyd's Lab participant – announces the release of a major advance in flood modeling with the release of the HazardHub Enhanced Flood Model and the HazardHub Catastrophic Flood Model. Insurers, property specialists, and municipalities can now see what happens when catastrophic, soaking rains hit any part of the United States.
Dr. Brady Foust, Ph.D. and HazardHub's Chief Scientist explains, "For the longest time, insurers, business owners and consumers have been vexed by one question – why is my supposedly safe property now underwater? Part of the reason is that current flood models are meant to strike a balance between obvious flood risk and the desire to build property – these models ignore the impact of climate-driven, sustained, catastrophic precipitation. The HazardHub Enhanced Flood Model and Catastrophic Flood Model address this gap in the market by combining an incredibly detailed hydrology database, 10-meter elevation, known precipitation patterns, and a complex database schema to deliver a picture of both excessive and catastrophic flood risk."
Current models give a single answer based on "normal" precipitation. Their shortcomings are exposed when excessive and catastrophic precipitation is involved. HazardHub fills this hole in the market by providing customers with two scores. The first score – the HazardHub Enhanced Flood Model – adjusts scores based upon water body strength and NOAA's model of Potential Maximum Precipitation (PMP). A second score – the HazardHub Catastrophic Flood Model - reflects precipitation levels that are roughly twice the PMP.
The precipitation-based flooding in Houston in 2017, as the result of Hurricane Harvey, the catastrophic flooding in Nashville in 2010, and the Midwest in 2019 are examples of such events.
In the Nashville and Houston catastrophic floods, roughly 53% of destroyed properties were in 100-year or 500-year FEMA flood zones. HazardHub's Enhanced flood model identified 83% of those same properties being at risk, while the HazardHub Catastrophic Flood Model identified over 99% of those destroyed properties as being at risk.
Bob Frady, CEO of HazardHub adds, "Through our work with our internal and external mentors at Lloyd's Lab, we've seen incredible, surprise losses from flooding events – losses that can devastate a book of business. We've also seen the emergence of a burgeoning private flood insurance market that needs to plan for what happens in worst-case scenarios. Unfortunately, the number of catastrophic events is projected to increase dramatically as a result of climate change, making these "unusual" events much more common. The HazardHub Enhanced Flood Model and Catastrophic Flood Model helps insurers, insureds, municipalities, and reinsurers plan for what happens when a precipitation deluge comes to town. It addresses an important – yet ignored – piece of the existing flood modeling world."
The HazardHub Catastrophic Flood Model is available today via HazardHub's lightning-fast API and is no additional charge for all existing API clients.
About HazardHub
HazardHub is your insurance policy against property risk.
Air. Fire. Water. Earth. Man-Made. HazardHub is the only third-generation provider of property-level hazard risk databases spanning the most dangerous perils in the United States. HazardHub translates huge amounts of geospatial digital data into easy to understand answers, providing easy to comprehend risk scorecards that are used to make real-world decisions. Our team of scientists provides comprehensive, and innovative, national coverage for risks that destroy and damage property. With more than 30,000,000 results returned to the market, HazardHub is fast-becoming the industry's go-to vendor for property and risk data.
To learn more about HazardHub please visit http://www.hazardhub.com or reach us directly at [email protected].
SOURCE HazardHub
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