As a spokesman for State Farm, Jim Camoriano has worked theaftermaths of hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008 and has seen hisshare of tornado damage.

But the Joplin tornado, he says, “was by far the most riveting.As I drove through the city, it became apparent that this event wasgoing into the record books.”

State Farm's data does not isolate the vast destruction causedby the EF-5 tornado that devastated Joplin on May 22, 2011 becauseit started several days of tornadoes in Missouri from May 22-26.During this time, the largest writer of home and auto insurancereceived about 16,500 claims—and has paid more than $209 million topolicyholders.

The storm system that spawned the tornado in Joplin also causedwind and hail damage in nine other states. Adding these, State farmhas received more than 75,000 claims and paid out more than $601million.

In the storm's aftermath, it appeared as if “livelihoods werestacked into heaps of brick, wood and glass,” Camoriano says.

Meanwhile, American Family Insurance expects to make paymentstotaling $116 million on some 2,400 claims in Joplin. The insurersponsored an episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” to helpthe community rebuild, says spokesman Ken Muth, who adds that anagent's office in Joplin was demolished. The agent was relocated toanother agent's office so he could begin helping customers.

After a disaster of Joplin's scale, “we don't work much from theoffice anyway,” says Muth. “We're out visiting customers at theirhomes, or what is left of them. The damage was unbelievable.”

American Family is also sponsoring several events, including amemorial run for the 161 lives lost in the tornado, to mark theone-year anniversary.

Jerry Davies, spokesman for Farmers Insurance, says the event“was beyond belief in the ferocity and velocity of thetornado.”

The insurer set up a mobile claims truck at a local Wal-Mart andone of its agents got Tyson Foods and another distributor todeliver meat and vegetables.

“They set up a cooking area using the agent's home grills andthe agents and volunteers fed 115,000 people that first weekend,working 16 hours per day,” Davies says.

Camoriano says the image of a child's teddy bear next to an openBible changed his perception of natural disasters.

“It became an individual event for me, where before it was easyto get caught up in talking simply about X number of claims,” headds. It made me ask some tough questions. Did the children make itout of this house alive? What would it be like to lose everythingin a matter of seconds?”