(Bloomberg) -- A tornado tore through thenortheast of Hamburg on Tuesday evening, blowing off the roofs ofseveral buildings, uprooting dozens of trees and damaging cars anda power line as storms that have raged across Europe this monthcontinued to reap destruction.

More than 1,000 firefighters, police and other emergencypersonnel worked from the evening hours until early on Wednesday toclear fallen trees and roof tiles off the streets and eliminatehazards at more than 250 sites along the twister’s 500-meter(1,640-foot) path through the city, which is home to Germany’sbiggest port.

“In one street, the whirlwind knocked down more than 50 hugetrees,” said Jan Ole Unger, a spokesman at the Hamburg firedepartment. A power line had to be switched off after being hit bya tree, temporarily cutting electricity for some households in thearea. “It’s a miracle that nobody was hurt or killed,” saidUnger.

Insurance claims

There is a “very high probability” that the vortex of violent windswas a tornado, meaning the wind funnel touched the ground, AndreasFriedrich, a tornado expert at Germany’s DWD NationalMeteorological Service, said by phone. In March 2006, a twisteroverthrew cranes at a construction site in Hamburg’s port area,killing the two drivers of the cranes, according toFriedrich.

Insurers are facing higher-than-expected claims related tofloods and storm damage after torrential rains and flash floodsswept through southern Germany and France in recent weeks. At leasteight people died in the sudden deluge, which took people bysurprise. The Rock am Ring concert in the eastern Eifel region wascanceled after lightning struck and several people werehospitalized.

Storm claims could reach 1 billion euros ($1.14 billion), FitchRatings said in a report Tuesday. The credit-rating company saidpublic-sector insurers may be most affected by the disasters,including Versicherungskammer Bayern and SV SparkassenVersicherungHolding AG, both owned by German regional savings banks.

Economic losses

The economic losses could be significantly higher, given that onlyone-third of home-insurance policies in Germany include naturalhazard cover, Fitch said. The German insurance industry’s GDV lobbygroup has estimated claims of about 450 million euros from stormElvira that primarily hit Germany’s southwest at the end ofMay.

Fitch increased its forecast for the combined ratio of Germannon-life insurers to 95% from 93%, indicating rising claims andcosts as a proportion of premiums.

With a bill reaching $3.4 billion, 2002 was the costliest yearin terms of flood claims affecting Germany, according to data byMunich Re. More than a week of continuous heavy rainmade rivers including the Elbe and Danube burst their banks,inundating eastern Germany and neighboring countries. Floods in thesame area in 2013 cost insurers about $3 billion.

Related: 8 steps toward creating a tornado preparation andresponse plan

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