NU Online News Service, Jan. 24, 12:00 p.m. EST

Catastrophe modeler Eqecat Inc. says insured losses from a series of southern storms should stay “well below” $100 million.

Eqecat says 21 tornadoes were reported Jan. 22 in Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama and strong winds extended to Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana. Then, early on Jan. 23, two tornadoes struck Alabama.

As of the afternoon of Jan. 23, State Farm says it received 400 claims, mostly from Alabama in the cities of Birmingham, Trussville, Center Point, Pinson and Bessemer.

More than 120 claims are for what the insurer calls severe damage. It also has received more than 120 auto claims.

Two people died inAlabamaas a result of the Jan. 23 storms, according to reports. More than 240 residents of the state died due to tornadoes in 2011—a year in which more than 550 people died from tornadoes in the U.S., according to the Insurance Information Institute.

Last year was the worst in terms of insured losses for Alabama, where property and casualty insurers doled out $3.2 billion in 175,000 home and business owners, says I.I.I.

Homeowners' losses represented 66 percent of the total loss in the state last year. Between 1998 and 2011, insured catastrophe losses across the state totaled $8.4 billion.

Over the last decade, Alabama had ranked toward the bottom in return on net worth for insurers, but 2011 could make the state close to the least profitable state to do business in the U.S.

According to a presentation given in Alabama by Robert Hartwig, president of I.I.I., homeowners' losses paid in Alabama exceeded estimated premiums collected by more than $400 million in 2011.

The average cost of a homeowners' catastrophe claim reached a record $15,989 in 2011.

Special Reports /

Insured Loss from Southern Storms Less Than $100M: Eqecat

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