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10 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | SEPTEMBER 30, 2024 Brown Roofing owner Edward Griffin at a jobsite in Cheshire. HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER Storm Surge Wetter weather brings flood of work for some CT contractors ages, shingle shortages, plywood shortages — all the things we use. Siding is just so backed out." Climate costs In a report released in May, Zurich Insurance warned that flooding, hurricanes, drought, wildfires and other natural disasters exacerbated by climate change are already having a significant economic impact. Twenty-three percent of the global population is exposed to flood depths greater than 5.9 inches during a 100-year flood, while 700 million people are at risk of being displaced by a drought by 2030, according to the report. Globally, natural disasters caused $380 billion in economic losses in 2023, with less than one-third of those losses covered by insurance, according to professional services firm Aon. The Aug. 18 rainstorm that pummeled parts of New Haven, Litchfield and Fairfield counties with up to nearly 16 inches of rain in six- to eight hours caused hundreds-of-mil- lions of dollars in damage to homes, businesses and public infrastructure. According to the state Department of Emergency Management and Home- land Security, parts of Connecticut experienced once-in-1,000-year flooding. Three people died. Dozens more were evacuated. The Metro-North railroad's Water- bury branch suffered an estimated $13 million in damage, according to Gov. Ned Lamont, who issued a formal request for a federal disas- ter-relief declaration, which was approved by President Joe Biden. In one Seymour shopping center, 13 of 17 businesses were destroyed or suffered major damage. As of Sept. 6, more than 155 small businesses had applied for a piece of a $5 million state micro-grant program created to help storm-im- pacted companies. Almost 2,000 homes were found to have suffered damage from the storm. Ocean-water evaporation John Bagioni, a meteorologist operating Fax Alert Weather Service in Burlington, said he's convinced climate change is making storms more intense, but there isn't enough By Michael Puffer mpuffer@hartfordbusiness.com B rown Roofing's landlord in the Seymour Industrial Park is adding a new 45,000-square- foot warehouse so the company can carry enough roofing shingles, plywood and other materials to keep up with supply chain delays and rising demand. A growing number of severe storms is at least partially responsible for a boost in business in recent years, says Brown Roofing owner Edward Griffin. "I definitely agree that storms are becoming more severe, more common," Griffin said. "Years of work is now accumulating in three months." Meteorological experts generally agree that climate change and a warming planet are putting more moisture in the air, which has led to stronger, more intense storms. While that creates great risks and costs for many businesses, often unrecover- able through insurance, it also puts contractors like Brown Roofing in higher demand. Some contractors, including roofing and basement repair companies, are responding by hiring more staff and moving to larger buildings with greater storage capacity. Griffin took a summer job with Brown Roofing in 1989, when he was 13. Twenty-three years later, he bought what was a six-person company from founder Gary Brown. Now 49, Griffin employs 54 people and said demand is higher than ever. "We are holding onto way more inventory than we ever had because of the shortages that happen when you have these severe storms," Griffin said. "You start to have color short- LOSSES 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Source: Aon's 2024 Climate and Catastrophe Insight report $700B $600B $500B $400B $300B $200B $100B 0 GLOBAL ECONOMIC LOSSES FROM NATURAL DISASTERS