Property losses from Colorado flood projected at about $2 billion

Keith Coffman in Reuters: Property losses from deadly flooding in Colorado will total nearly $2 billion, about half from housing and half from the commercial and government sectors, catastrophe modeling firm Eqecat said on Wednesday in the first comprehensive estimate of the disaster's economic toll.

State and county emergency management officials have hardly begun to prepare actual damage assessments from flooding that has ravaged thousands of homes and killed at least eight people in a disaster zone in and around Colorado's biggest urban centers.

The projected losses for residential property alone are about $900 million - equivalent to more than $200 for each of the 4 million people who live in Colorado's 17 flood-stricken counties, based on 2012 census data. Most of the overall losses are uninsured, the firm said.

The tally for residential losses includes damaged or destroyed housing, as well as lost furnishings and belongings and costs incurred by displaced residents to live elsewhere until their dwellings are repaired or replaced, Eqecat said.

Another $1 billion is attributed to losses projected for commercial and government property, including roads and bridges, Eqecat senior vice president Tom Larsen told Reuters....

Jamestown, Colo., Sep. 15, 2013 -- The small mountain town of 300 has been cut off because of Boulder County flood. FEMA Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) teams deployed to the state to help in Search and Rescue operations. FEMA photo