Unusual Southeast Storms Bring Devastating Tornadoes To Region

CLAIMS ROLL IN

In North Carolina's largest personal-lines insurers are already handling thousands of claims, with more coming in every minute.

State Farm says it has received more than 10,000 claims from the storms. Hundreds of claims adjusters are in the hardest-hit areas in North Carolina and Virginia.

"I've never seen this type of devastation run through as fast as this," says State Farm spokeswoman Kim Conyers. "The damage is significant. It hit everything. It did not discriminate."

"I imagine this is a really challenging storm for the industry because it's so widespread and so severe," she says. The insurer is deploying resources in and out of state to assist in the recovery, handling the most significant claims first.

Steve Carroll, vice president and general manager for North Carolina Farm Bureau Insurance, says homes were lifted up off foundations and thrown dozens of yards.

"It's so unusual—so amazing," he adds, referring to the extensive destruction left by the storms. "We're used to handling damages from one [tornado] that hits a specific area, but this is everywhere—there were so many."

North Carolina normally gets about 20 tornadoes per year. Experts say the state was hit by as many as 20 on April 16 alone.

Thus far NC Farm Bureau has received 2,700 home, automobile, farm and commercial claims. Losses from these claims total about $21 million, but Carroll expects the claims number and losses to at least quadruple—to about 10,000 claims and $100 million of insured losses.

The state's third-largest personal-lines writer is treating the aftermath of the tornadoes like the aftermath of a hurricane, deploying its greatest catastrophe response, says Carroll.

Nationwide has taken 2,000 home and auto claims in North Carolina as of April 19, says spokeswoman Elizabeth Giannetti. Claims counts are expected to rise significantly as 300 associates are now on the ground to assess damages, write checks and help file claims.

Allstate spokeswoman April Eaton says the company is seeing downed trees, snapped telephone poles, damaged roofs and hail damage. The insurer has five mobile claims centers: two in North Carolina, and one each in Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina. The locations in the Carolinas are drive-in claim centers to meet the increased auto-claim volume, she adds.

INSURERS LEND A HAND

Not to be lost among the claims numbers, humanitarian efforts by insurers began not long after the tornadoes swept through. Conyers says an agent in Lumberton was out with a cooler of water and Gatorade for homeowners.

Nationwide spokeswoman Elizabeth Giannetti says the firm has set up five humanitarian stations with essentials like ice, water, diapers, granola bars, paper towels, toilet paper and other supplies for affected policyholders. The company also made a $350,000 donation to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund for tornado victims, with $250,000 designated for North Carolina.

The severe weather affected Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, the Carolinas and Virginia, where the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission was keeping on eye on the Surry nuclear power plant.

Operated by Dominion, the plant lost power Saturday evening when a tornado touched down on an electrical switchyard next to the plant. Both reactors shut down immediately, and there was no release of radiation beyond that which is associated with normal operations, Dominion says in a statement.

An offsite power source has been restored, the company adds.

Catastrophe-modeler AIR Worldwide says April and May are the worst times for tornadoes in the South. However, the weekend's storm system "was unusual because of its size and duration," says Tim Doggett, AIR principal scientist.