Today is the 100th anniversary of the Great Miami Hurricane, one of the storms that shaped how the property insurance industry thinks about hurricane risk. It made landfall in Florida, not Texas, but the reason it still gets discussed a century later has everything to do with what it shows about growth, exposure, and preparedness along the entire Gulf Coast, including here.
What happened on September 18, 1926
The storm made landfall near Miami in the early hours of September 18, 1926, as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds estimated at approximately 145 mph. Total economic losses at the time were about 105 million dollars, and with insurance penetration far lower than today, insured losses came to roughly 16.5 million dollars. At least 114 lives were lost in the Miami area.
Part of what made the storm so deadly was its eye. Miami sat under roughly 35 minutes of calm as the eye passed over, and many residents, unfamiliar with hurricanes at the time, went outside believing the storm had ended. The second half of the eyewall then hit with the same violence as the first.
1926, actual
Insured losses from the storm, in 1926 dollars, per Swiss Re Institute.
Same storm, today
Swiss Re Institute's modeled insured loss if an identical storm struck the same area today.
A Category 5 hurricane hitting Miami or Tampa Bay directly could cause 300 billion dollars or more in insured losses, per the same Swiss Re Institute analysis. The increase is not a statement about storms getting stronger. It reflects how much more property now sits along the coast than in 1926.
About 16.5 million dollars in insured losses in 1926. Swiss Re Institute estimates an identical storm today would cost about 200 billion, and a Category 5 hitting Miami or Tampa Bay directly could cost 300 billion or more.
The growth in potential losses is not about Florida specifically. It reflects how much more property now sits along the entire Gulf Coast, Texas included, and it is a reminder that the value at risk in a major storm keeps growing even when the storms themselves are not new.
What changed, and what did not
In 1926, the first storm warning went out about six hours before landfall, and it did not reach everyone in time. Today, the National Hurricane Center can provide up to seven days of advance warning, using satellites, aircraft reconnaissance, and radar that did not exist a century ago. What has not changed is the basic shape of the risk: a major hurricane can still cause damage faster than most people are prepared to document it, and the property insurance process that follows still runs on the same idea it did in 1926, that a covered loss has to be measured and paid.
Warning time. Six hours in 1926 versus up to seven days today. The storm itself is a reminder that preparation still matters, because documentation and readiness happen before the warning runs out, not after.
Where this connects to Texas property insurance
Every property policy that includes an appraisal clause works the same way it did a century ago: when the carrier and the policyholder agree a loss is covered but disagree about the amount, either side can invoke appraisal, each side names an independent appraiser, and the two appraisers select an umpire if they cannot agree. If you want the plain language version of how that works, start with what insurance appraisal is. Texas Gulf Coast property, including windstorm coverage through TWIA, carries its own version of this same exposure. Our TWIA coverage page covers what is different about that process.
Where we come in
We serve as independent appraisers and umpires on hurricane and windstorm claims across Texas, residential and commercial. A storm like the one that hit Miami in 1926 is a reminder that the size of a loss can outpace what anyone expected going in, and that the appraisal process exists specifically to resolve disagreements about the amount once a covered loss has happened. Our credentials page covers the background behind the work.
Last reviewed: September 20, 2026. Historical and loss figures sourced from Swiss Re Institute, "The Great Miami Hurricane at 100," and the National Weather Service.