Though a huge earthquake is often mentioned when discussing either San Francisco's utter destruction or the only way one might be able to afford property, it won't be the worst thing to happen to the city, insurer Lloyd's of London says.
Known by ignorant people like me as the company that insured Dolly Parton's boobs for (at current exchange rates) $5.77 million, Lloyd's also just launched the City Risk Index, which determines "the potential impact on the economic output (GDP@Risk) of 301 of the world’s major cities from 18 manmade and natural threats."
SF's top threat, per Lloyd's? A massive stock market crash, which would hit us to the tune of $10.53 billion dollars. Second on the list is "oil price shock" at $6.6 B, and third is "cyber attack," at $5.9 B.
In their "San Francisco Fact Sheet," Lloyd's says that though we have "a 63% chance of experiencing a temblor of magnitude 6.7 or larger in the next 30 years," the financial impact would only be the fourth most severe, at $5.67 billion.
"With periodic episodes of storm surges, flash flooding and inundation from San Francisco Bay, the city has almost as much GDP@Risk from Flood as it does from Earthquake," which why flooding is listed at number five, at $5.48 billion, they say.
The risk assessments are "based on original research by the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School," and "shows how governments, businesses and communities are highly exposed to systemic, catastrophic shocks and could do more to mitigate risk and improve resilience." So, guys, guess that means we all need to get boats.
You can make yourself crazy about SF's various threats of destruction with Lloyd's SF threat page here, and their SF fact sheet here. Have a great weekend!