The Oklahoma Insurance Department says payments from thedevastating May tornado outbreak across central Oklahoma have nowtopped $1 billion.
|“These numbers are staggering,” says Oklahoma InsuranceCommissioner John D. Doak in a statement. “We've topped $1 billionin payments and the rebuilding is just beginning.
|“We expected to see these amounts and they continue to go upevery week,” he adds. “This is a major catastrophe that's impactedthousands of Oklahomans.”
|He says some survivors are still dealing with insurance andrebuilding issues that cannot be resolved quickly, but thedepartment will be there for policyholders “until the last claim ispaid.”
|Since May 19, nearly 91,000 claims have been filed, but someremain unresolved—which is not uncommon three to four months aftera large-scale disaster, the department says. It does not keepfigures on the number of claims resolved or still opened.
|The Oklahoma Emergency Management Office says that for the monthof May there were 56 tornadoes in the state that included an EF-4tornado hitting Shawnee on May 19 and an EF-5—the mostpowerful—striking Moore on May 20. There were 387 injuries from thetornadoes during the week of May 19-25 and another 121 injuriescaused by tornadoes and flooding during May 28-June 1.
|The death count from the Moore tornado stands at 25 after a90-year-old woman recently died of injuries sustained during thedisaster. The tornado also demolished the Plaza Towers ElementarySchool, killing seven children.
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