By Loretta L. Worters, Vice President, Media Relations, Triple-I
Historically, fire has been the biggest risk associated with the risk of lightning. But as urban density increases and society’s reliance on electrical and electronic devices increases, lightning damage can be much more significant than the average home or business owner realizes.
According to a Triple-I analysis of State Farm data compiled to coincide with Lightning Safety Awareness Week (June 18-24), $952 million in U.S. homeowners insurance claims were paid out in 2022 to more than 62,000 policyholders. There was good news in the data, including:
- The total value of U.S. lightning-related homeowner’s insurance claims fell by more than 27 percent in 2022 ($952 million) from 2021 ($1.3 billion).
- The number of U.S. lightning-related homeowner insurance claims increased only slightly, by 2.2 percent between 2021 and 2022 from 60,851 to 62,189, with figures from the 10 largest claims states contributing about half of the total.
- The average cost per lightning claim decreased 29 percent, from $21,578 in 2021 to $15,280 in 2022.
“Insurers are moving toward loss prediction and prevention by championing resilience in coordination with the real-time application of technology,” said Triple-I CEO Sean Kevelighan. “Lightning Safety Awareness Week highlights the dangers that lightning poses to life and property and how insurers and policyholders are reducing those risks.”
Homes aren’t the only structures at risk of light damage. In a recent interview with Kevelighan, Tim Harger — executive director of the Lightning Protection Institute — said an East Coast furniture manufacturer suffered “well over a million dollars in damage” when it was struck.
“Yes, it was the typical fire that caused structural damage, but what was affected on the ‘inside’ was even more expensive,” he said. “They had damaged inventory, stopped production and lost revenue during the repairs.”
Investing in a lightning protection system could have saved this business owner – and his insurer – the millions of dollars lost and prevented the business interruption.
“When it comes to protecting homes, businesses or critical community facilities, we know that a properly installed lighting protection system is scientifically proven to mitigate the damage from a lightning strike,” Harger said.
Although cities have problems with lightning, so do parts of the country where lightning fires are significant. According to the Congressional Research Service, most wildfires are caused by humans (89 percent of the average number of wildfires from 2018 to 2022). In contrast, wildfires caused by lightning tend to be slightly larger and burn more area (53 percent of the average area burned from 2018 to 2022) than human-caused fires.
Florida, Georgia, Texas and California lead to lightning losses
Not surprisingly, Florida—the state with the most thunderstorms—remained the top state for lightning claims in 2022, with 5,504, followed by Georgia with 4,474. However, California had the highest average cost per claim at $36,319, followed by Texas at $25,286 .
Damage caused by lightning, such as fire, is covered by standard home insurance policies. Some homeowner’s policies provide coverage for power surges that are the direct result of a lightning strike.
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