The present estimate of losses arising from Hurricane Helene, which struck Florida and Georgia and brought about flooding within the Carolinas and Tennessee, is between US$20 to US$34 billion, in response to 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 development of insurers shifting away from high-risk areas, beginning way back to the 1960’s, when a typical hurricane would have the business protecting round 60% of the losses.
60 individuals are reported to have perished, with hundreds of thousands of properties with out energy.
What we’re seeing this time is consistent with Hurricane Ian in 2022, when over 20 electrical autos caught hearth after being submerged or partially submerged by saltwater from flooding or storm surge. This example turns into worse if the automobile is inside a storage that’s a part of a house or comparable construction. This places huge stress on the emergency providers, who’re already stretched coping with the consequences of the storm.
There are a lot 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 autos 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 autos 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 properties, workplaces, or different buildings as soon as broken by saltwater shouldn’t be ignored.
I’m not in opposition to electrical autos. We’ve one within the household, and whereas they’ve nice advantages, additionally they include dangers that should be understood and acted upon. The key takeaways are batteries which were broken from any trigger, together with inundation by saltwater, shouldn’t be positioned on cost, should be stored properly away out of your properties or different buildings, and changed as quickly as potential.
As an apart, I imagine care ought to be taken with lithium batteries on or round pleasure craft because of the threat of fireside from broken batteries.
