ISO Says Florida Tornado Damage Hits $100M

The tornadoes that ripped through sections of central Florida earlier this month will cost insurers an estimated $100 million, according to the Insurance Services Office, Inc.

Gary Kerney, assistant vice president of Property Claims Services--a division of Jersey City, N.J.-based ISO--said today that insured losses from the Feb. 2 tornadoes that damaged four central Florida counties would hit the $100 million mark.

In an interview with National Underwriter, he said the primary losses were on the personal lines side--about 70 percent of the total. It appeared that commercial line losses were not as extensive as homeowners. It also appeared that many apartment dwellers and manufactured (also known as mobile home) homeowners did not have insurance.

He said this event "points again to the fact that these kinds of losses are extremely difficult to estimate," said Mr. Kerney, accounting for the extended amount of time it took PCS to come up with an estimate.

The killer tornadoes hit Lake, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia counties, claiming 20 lives.

The National Weather Service believes three tornadoes touched down--one believed to be a F-3 tornado with winds from 158-to-206 miles per hour. NWS estimated that the swath of tornadoes covered 70 miles.

Besides killing 21, the storm ruined 1,544 structures--completely destroying 434 and severely damaging 456.

Two of the state's major insurers said they suffered multimillion dollar losses.

The largest personal lines insurer in the state, State Farm, estimated its losses would be around $25 million, while Citizens Property Insurance Corp.--the state's carrier of last resort--expected losses to exceed $5 million.

Weather catastrophe losses for insurers are continuing, noted Mr. Kerney, with this past weekend's series of storms receiving a catastrophe designation from PCS. He said the designation covers the states of Texas, Arkansas and Iowa. It is too early to give any loss estimates, he added.