Indiana Hailstorm Claim Report

Indiana insurers have settled more than 95 percent of the claims from an April 2006 hailstorm in the state that was the largest weather event in the nation last year, according to the Insurance Institute of Indiana.

Steve Williams, president of the Institute, said that, given the state rarely has such a large event, “the industry's response was impressive.”

The claim was based on a sampling of Indiana's largest property and casualty insurers.

The institute said it found that more than 95 percent of claims from the April 14, 2006 hailstorm have been resolved, and complaints have been filed in less than one out of every 200 cases.

Company-specific statistics are not released by the Institute, but their sampling of both large and small companies found that in 70,000 claims (25 percent of all claims), only 352 complaints were lodged. That's about one complaint in every 200 claims, Mr. Williams said.

“The response is noteworthy due to the unprecedented nature of last year's storm,” he added.

The Institute said that, according to figures from Insurance Services Office in Jersey City, N.J., the April 14, 2006 hailstorm was the largest weather catastrophe in the nation that year, resulting in more than $1.3 billion in damage with about 282,500 claims filed.

“Indiana is not a Florida or Louisiana, where insurance companies expect large storms annually,” Mr. Williams said. “The industry was surprised by this event, but yet the [customer] satisfaction rate was astonishingly high.”