UVE - AccuWeather issues preliminary estimate of economic damages from Idalia

2023-08-31 07:25:59 ET

Idalia has come and gone, with heavy rainfall, winds, flooding and local residents continuing to assess the damage. It made landfall Wednesday morning on the Gulf Coast of Florida as a Category 3, but the hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm as it crossed Georgia and the Carolinas. The eye of the storm is now going back out to sea, but by the look of related stocks, Idalia appears to have thankfully caused much less destruction than initially feared.

On the move: Allstate ( NYSE: ALL ) rose 3.4% on Wednesday, along with other insurers like Progressive ( NYSE: PGR ), RenaissanceRe ( NYSE: RNR ) and Universal Insurance Holdings ( NYSE: UVE ), with claims not expected to be as bad as previously forecast. Meanwhile, backup generator player Generac ( NYSE: GNRC ) - which can see outsized trading activity from adverse weather events - fell back following a run-up over the past few sessions. Home Depot ( NYSE: HD ) and Lowe's ( NYSE: LOW ) also traded mildly higher, but no major jumps were seen as homeowners look to rebuild in the aftermath of the hurricane.

Putting things into context, AccuWeather issued a preliminary estimate of economic damages from Idalia in a range of $18B-$20B for the Southeastern U.S., compared to last year's Hurricane Ian, which caused an economic loss of $180B-$210B. "I let each governor I spoke with know if there's anything, anything the states need right now, I'm ready to mobilize that support," President Biden said in a statement.

Elsewhere: Duke Energy ( NYSE: DUK ) in Florida aimed to have the power of 95% of impacted customers restored by Wednesday night, and so far, 135,000 homes and businesses are back online. NextEra Energy ( NYSE: NEE ), which owns Florida Power & Light Company - America's largest electric utility - is also on watch. In terms of air travel, the Tampa and Tallahassee International Airports said they expected to resume full operations today, which is good news for carriers like Southwest ( NYSE: LUV ), Delta ( NYSE: DAL ) and American Airlines ( NASDAQ: AAL ).

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