May Storm Loss Tally Boosted By $100 Million

May Storm Loss Tally Boosted By $100 Million

NU Online News Service, June 18, 12:50 p.m. EDT?The $1.55 billion total for insured losses resulting from the twister's and storms that hit the nation last month has been increased by $100 million by Missouri officials.

Insured losses in Missouri from last month's devastating tornadoes and storms could now exceed $500 million, with more than 75,000 Missouri residents filing claims, said Scott Lakin, director at the state's insurance department.

The May storms, which affected 17 other states during the May 4-10 period, appear certain to rank as the second-worst in Missouri's history of insured storm losses, just behind the hailstorm that hit the St. Louis County during April 2001, Mr. Lakin said.

So far, the St. Louis region and the southeastern part of the state have registered 8,200 claims for structures and more than 5,600 claims for autos, according to Missouri's insurance department.

This new insured-loss estimate is larger than the Missouri insurance department's earlier forecast of $400 million and bigger than the preliminary estimate of $275 million released by the Jersey City, N.J.-based Insurance Services Office Inc. on May 20.

Dave Dasgupta, spokesman at ISO, said the discrepancy between the two estimates could be attributed to a number of factors. "For one, catastrophe of this dimension affects a wide region and it's possible that claims adjusters had not reached most remote and the worst-affected areas when we conducted our preliminary estimate because of rescue operations and emergency evacuation activities going on," Mr. Dasgupta said.

He noted, "People were trying to put their lives back together right after the storms, so they may not necessarily have filed claims at the time of our estimate."

Mr. Dasgupta said it was possible that more people could have filed claims after our Property Claim Services unit conducted its first estimate. "That may also account for the difference between our preliminary estimate and Missouri insurance department's new estimate," he speculated.

ISO forecast last month that the 18 affected states will receive more than 429,000 claims from auto, residential and commercial policyholders hit by hail, wind, flooding and more than 400 tornadoes, with total insured losses reaching $1.55 billion.

Mr. Dasgupta said ISO is planning to conduct a new survey in the coming month to make any necessary adjustments to its earlier estimate.