Addressing Hurricane Risk in North America
Hurricanes remain one of the most severe peak perils in North America, capable of driving outsized losses despite year-to-year variability in landfalls. Natural catastrophes generated $260 billion in global economic losses in 2025, with $127 billion insured, and the United States alone accounted for approximately 81% of global insured losses—underscoring the scale and concentration of risk in the region.
Even in a year without major U.S. hurricane landfalls, a single Atlantic storm can cause significant disruption. Hurricane Melissa, for example, resulted in approximately $11 billion in economic losses, highlighting the severe risk hurricanes continue to pose across North America and the wider Atlantic basin.
Our Parametric Approach to Hurricane Exposure
Descartes’ parametric hurricane insurance offers highly sought-after capacity by:
- Designing bespoke payout structures using near-real-time hurricane track and wind-speed data to define clear, objective triggers tailored to client needs
- Providing flexible, location-specific coverage that can be calibrated for single sites or multiple exposures across coastal and inland assets
- Compensating for both direct and indirect financial impacts of hurricanes, including property damage and extended economic losses such as downtime, evacuation costs, and business interruption
- Delivering rapid, transparent indemnification, with payouts issued within days based on pre-agreed parameters rather than traditional loss adjustment
Our parametric hurricane insurance empowers corporations and public sector clients with increased resilience, offering both dependable capacity and swift financial protection when traditional insurance alone may fall short.
Parametric Coverage in 4 Steps
Assess
We assess and evaluate the client's tropical cyclone exposure, leveraging our proprietary risk model.
Customize
Design a customized index cover, fit to the client’s needs, in which payout structures are indexed according to specific wind speeds and distance to storm track.
Monitor
Upon policy inception, we monitor the insured's location for tropical cyclones to determine whether a qualifying storm has occurred.
Payout
Insured client receives a payout within days of reporting a loss, accelerating financial recovery and reconstruction.
Our case studies are all over the world
Utilizing Machine Learning and real-time monitoring from satellite imagery & IoT, our state-of-the-art technology helps businesses bounce back faster against climate, cyber and other emerging risks.
Who Should Consider This?
Descartes' product offers bespoke coverage for particularly hurricane-exposed industry sectors including real estate, hospitality, construction, and renewables. Our cover goes beyond physical damages, as for example in the hospitality sector we extend it to costs associated with the significant downtime of re-construction and renovation, consequent missed bookings and closure periods, evacuation of tourists, relocation of employees, and more.
Capacity
Up to $140M per contract in the U.S. and the Caribbean
Benefits Powered by Parametric Hurricane Insurance
Our parametric hurricane insurance strengthens resilience by:
- Covering the full spectrum of economic losses caused by a tropical cyclone
- Protecting against both property damage and non-damage business interruption
- Delivering data-backed, advanced parametric payouts to support rapid recovery and operational continuity
Helping Brokers Unlock Innovative Parametric Hurricane Insurance Solutions
Our parametric hurricane cover uses near-real-time hurricane track and wind-speed data to deliver rapid, transparent payouts. We monitor these trajectories in a jointly defined perimeter around the client’s insured locations—from single-spot covers to thousands of risks across different countries.
Our straightforward structure compensates for any hurricane-related direct or indirect financial loss by paying out pre-agreed amounts based on the maximum sustained wind speed reported along the hurricane’s trajectory and its distance to the insured’s location.
Partner with us to strengthen resilience and manage hurricane risk with confidence.
Contact Us
Whether you're quoting a complex risk, looking to break into new markets, or just curious about parametric insurance, our team is here to help you win. Reach out and we will get back to you within 48 hours.
