Severe weather over the Mother's Day weekend spurned a number ofkiller tornadoes that could qualify for the Insurance ServicesOffice catastrophe designation, the firm said today.

Gary Kerney, assistant vice president for Property ClaimService, a subsidiary of Jersey City, N.J.-based ISO, said today inan e-mail that the company is currently examining the weekendstorms in all the affected states.

"We will likely be assigning a serial number to the recenttornadoes but are currently gathering information from other statessuch as Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas and Georgia in order toclearly assess all of the severe weather situations."

PCS rates an event as a catastrophe when it impacts asignificant number of insureds and inflicts $25 million indamage.

The weekend storm front over the Midwest destroyed homes,knocked out power and reportedly killed as many as 21 peoplethroughout the region.

In terms of fatalities, the worst hit was Missouri, where thestate's Emergency Management Agency reported at least 14 peopledied in the southwest portion of the state. Barry County appearedto be the hardest hit with up to 175 buildings affected bytornadoes and a dozen destroyed. Most of the deaths occurred inNewton County, where 12 died.

Oklahoma reported six deaths and more than 150 injuries from atornado Saturday in Ottawa County, according to the governor'soffice.

In Arkansas, Tommy Jackson, spokesman for the state's Departmentof Emergency Services, said there were nine injuries and nofatalities reported so far, but close to 100 homes and businesswere damaged from the storm, with between 25 and 30 homesexperiencing major damage.

The state has experienced 45 tornadoes since Jan 8, he said.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency said on its Web sitethat one person died during the storms that affected six counties.It said hundreds of homes and public buildings were damaged acrossthe state.

"This spring we have witnessed a number of intense storms, andMother's Day weekend was no exception," said former Gov. MarcRacicot, president of the American Insurance Association. "Fewmeasures can provide any consolation to the victims of thesetornadoes, but the insurance industry vows to do its part byassisting the residents in picking up the pieces."

Mike Siemienas, a spokesman for Allstate, said the company hasteams of adjusters on the ground helping customers, and there areplenty more available if needed. While the process is still in theearly stages, he said the worst hit area appears to be in theMacon, Ga., region of the state.

Jerry Davies, a spokesman with Farmers Insurance Group, said thecompany had deployed mobile units that can assist withcommunication and the filing of customer claims. It was too earlyto give any claims figures, he said.

According to ISO, the first quarter of this year has experiencedthe heaviest losses in the past 10 years with insured losses of$3.35 billion from nine catastrophe events. The next costliest was2005 with $2.14 billion.

The costliest event in this past quarter was the $955 millionloss from severe weather from Texas to Ohio in early February. Thatevent affected eight states.

(This story was updated on May 13 at 2:17 p.m.)