Tornadoes, floods, lightning strikes, wildfires and hurricane season waiting in the wings; the rain of frogs and plague of locusts can't be far off.

With half of 2011 already gone and virtually every region of the country stricken to some degree by natural disasters, this year is shaping up to be one of the most unique—and costly—in many years.

Disasters ranging from flooding along the Missouri River to a tornado in Joplin, Mo., to wildfires in Texas and Arizona that have damaged, destroyed or otherwise impacted scores of businesses, jobs and crops this year. Mid-America, long popular with insurers because of the lack of big coastal risk exposures, is proving conventional wisdom wrong and ringing up as much as $7 billion in losses from the May spate of tornadoes. (For a stunning visual account of the devastation in Joplin from the unique perspective of a State Farm agent, please visit our Web portal at propertycasualty360.com).

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