Weather

After tumbling last week on concerns that between damage from Harvey and Irma, losses for the P&C space would be devastating, today the broader insurer space is breathing a sigh of relief after the Hurricane's damage reportedly underwhelmed, especially following some especially dire observations over the weekend from the likes of Torsten Jeworrek, member of the board of the German reinsurance giant Munich Re, who on Sunday said that Hurricane Irma is proving to be a “major event” for Florida and the insurance industry.

Update (8:00am ET): As it travels over the Florida Panhandle, Irma has been downgraded to a tropical storm. Yet it continues to produce some wind gusts that are near hurricane force.

Tropical Storm #Irma Advisory 49A: Now available on the NHC website. https://t.co/VqHn0uj6EM

— NHC Atlantic Ops (@NHC_Atlantic) September 11, 2017

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As the eye of Hurricane Irma passes directly over Naples, Fla., the real destruction is just beginning as what's called the eyewall - typically the most devastating part of the storm - moves directly overhead.

?rma kas?rgas? Miami'ye ula?m??. 3 sene önce buradayd?m bi garip oldum pic.twitter.com/1HKRkMLbgM

— E?ref Ferid Bey (@Bakkalsosyal) September 10, 2017

As we noted on Friday, sea-level analytics firm Climate Central had created a simulation based on the National Hurricane Center’s Coastal Emergency Risks Assessment storm surge and wave modeling that illustrated the devastating flooding in Miami that could result from Hurricane Irma’s storm surge. By overlaying the NHC data with a three-dimensional visual of the city obtained using Google maps, the firm created a realistic visual of what the city would look like under between seven and 11 feet of water.

With just hours left until landfall, sometime on Sunday morning, Hurricane Irma is edging ever closer to Florida and has started to batter the state with Hurricane force winds as millions brace for the impact of the most powerful Atlantic storm in a decade.

According to ABC and AP, the National Weather Service measured a 74-mph gust in the Florida Keys on Saturday night, marking the beginning of hurricane-force winds that forecasters say will steadily intensify in the coming hours.