Isaias got a price in four days - modelers put it at $1 billion to $3 billion insured. Arthur's bill is still being written, four months on. It is itemized down to the soybeans, and the household money is still climbing. A weak storm gets weaker coverage and four months of accounting.

1. $750 million in economic losses, 17 to 20 June, Texas and Louisiana.
_{A tropical storm with 45 mph winds at landfall. One Louisiana gauge caught 29.06 inches of its rain in under 12 hours, a state record pending federal review (Aon, 2026-07-21 | National Hurricane Center, LSU Office of State Climatology and WAFB, June 2026, for the wind and rain)}

2. $112.2 million to Louisiana agriculture, $88.1 million of it lost crops.
_{Soybeans nearly $33 million, sugarcane $23.1 million, rice $15.8 million, corn $14.7 million (LSU AgCenter, 2026-08-03)}

3. More than $45 million approved by FEMA for Louisiana households.
_{Across 8,057 approved applications, and still rising four months on (FEMA, as of 2026-10-15)}

4. More than $25.6 million approved for Mississippi households.
_{Across 7,455 approved applications, after the storm damaged 532 homes, 17 businesses and 5 farms there (FEMA, as of 2026-10-15; Mississippi officials via WLOX, 2026-08-04)}

Billion-Dollar Disasters - Every Other Week

Nearly $60 billion in Helene damage in North Carolina, two years on. $5 billion of it was covered by private insurance. The state's own accounting of what one storm did, and what the private market covered. (North Carolina Department of Public Safety, 2026-09-25)

$1.4 billion to fight Oregon's wildfires this season, a record. Past 2024's $1.2 billion, with 2.1 million acres burned east of the Cascades. (Northwest Coordination Center data, via the Statesman Journal, 2026-09-30)

Nearly 25% of homeowners who paid out of pocket for weather damage are still in debt for it. And 71% of those have carried that debt two years or more. (Hippo survey of 1,047 homeowners, via Insurance Journal, 2026-10-07)

In 2025 the United States was hit by 23 separate billion-dollar weather disasters, the third-highest count since records began in 1980. But it was the most profitable year US property insurers have ever had. Those 23 disasters did about $115 billion in damage, and the largest home insurers closed 44% of their claims without paying anything.

The weather: 23 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in the US in 2025, costing about $115 billion. Third-highest count of any year since 1980, behind only 2023 and 2024. (Climate Central, 2026-03-09)

The insured losses: $100 billion in US insured catastrophe losses, running 12% above the ten-year average. The US carried 78% of the entire global insured catastrophe bill. (Gallagher Re, 2026-01-21)

The claims: 44% of home insurance claims closed in 2025 at the companies the Wall Street Journal analyzed paid nothing, up from 36% a decade ago. Senators Warren and Hawley wrote to State Farm, Allstate, USAA, Farmers, Liberty Mutual and American Family on 2 October. The answers are due tomorrow. (Senate letters, 2026-10-02)

The year they had: $136 billion, a record for US property and casualty insurers in 2025. Earnings up 45%, their best underwriting result since 2006. (Fitch Ratings, via Reinsurance News, 2026-04-20)

The premiums: About 70% is how much home insurance premiums rose nationally from 2019 to 2025. (Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, 2026-03-24)

And this fall: 8% more for State Farm homeowners in Illinois, after 27% in 2025. New policies from 1 October, renewals from 1 December. The insurer says it paid $1.22 in claims and expenses for every $1 it collected there over three years. (State Farm, via WGLT, 2026-10-07)

TLDR: Property insurers' best year on record ran alongside the third-worst year for billion-dollar weather disasters on record. 44% of claims closed without a payment. NAMIC, the insurers' trade group, answered with a different number: about one payment for every 14 policies in force.

America: From Sea to Rising Sea

California: $6 billion in total federal assistance for the Los Angeles fires so far. Twenty-one months after the January 2025 fires, the federal bill is still being counted. (FEMA, 2026-10-07)

Washington: more than $133.7 million in wildfire damage to public infrastructure across 11 counties. More than $70.5 million of it in Spokane County alone. (Governor Bob Ferguson, 2026-10-06)

Wisconsin: $13,861,378.38 in public damage from July's tornadoes. The disaster declaration came through on 7 October, two and a half months after the storms. (Governor Tony Evers, 2026-08-26; FEMA, 2026-10-07)

Georgia: $83.6 million in Helene costs submitted by Augusta, two years on. $46 million has come back. One city, one storm, and a little over half the money, after two years. (Augusta Emergency Management, via WRDW, 2026-09-25)

What's Straining the Grid and Our Wallets

About $16 million is the penalty California's safety regulators are seeking from Liberty Utilities over a fire that started on its own circuit. The 2020 Mountain View Fire. Separately, a proposed decision would let Liberty recover about $58 million of that fire's costs from its customers. (CPUC enforcement order, 2026-09-28; CPUC proposed decision, 2026-06-22)

$45 million is how far weather pushed Arizona Public Service's gross margin above normal in the first half of 2026. Weather is a line item in the earnings, and this year it ran in the utility's favor. (Pinnacle West investor presentation, 2026-09-30)

$155 million of storm costs folded into a $1.673 billion bond that West Virginia customers will pay off. Appalachian Power's storm bill does not go away. It gets financed, and the customers carry it. (Appalachian Power SEC filing, 2026-09-24)

Weather is coming, and it keeps getting more expensive. Track the totals at BadForecast.com

Executive Editor: Sierra Lindsey Kos · Editor: Jess McIntosh