Storms that spawned deadly tornadoes in the South from April 19 to April 27 are expected to cause between $2 billion and $5 billion in insured losses, according to modeling firm EQECAT.
Reports indicate the number of destroyed buildings is approaching 10,000 from more than 350 reported tornadoes, adds EQECAT.
Modeler AIR Worldwide says the tornado outbreak is similar to one in April 1974, which killed 310 people. A tornado in Alabama on April 27 killed about 200 people. The National Weather Service put a preliminary rating of EF5—the highest rating—on the twister, which hit Tuscaloosa, Ala. Deaths from tornadoes were also recorded in Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Arkansas and Kentucky.
AIR also compares the recent tornadoes to an outbreak in 2003, which resulted in $3.2 billion in insured loss at the time.
Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph T. Hudgens says damage from April 27 storms has reached $75 million in insured losses.
A tornado in St. Louis on April 22 has generated about 7,000 home and auto claims, according to the Missouri Department of Insurance (MDI). There have been 4,490 home, 2,245 auto and 240 commercial claims filed, with 137 buildings with "large or total losses," MDI says.
Mobile claims centers have been set up by insurers throughout the affected states. The Mississippi Insurance Department also says it set up a mobile assistance center and, like other insurance departments, has set up an online list of insurers' claims numbers. Each state is also warning residents of contractor fraud.
State Farm, the country's top personal-lines insurer, says it has received more than 25,000 claims in recent weeks following severe weather in April that has reduced hundreds of homes to ruins and taken hundreds of lives.
State Farm says it anticipates the claims count will continue to rise as damage is assessed.
The claims count is derived from Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri., Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Add to that about 2,800 homeowners and 1,600 automobile claims from North Carolina, says spokeswoman Kim Conyers. North Carolina was hit heavily by strong winds and tornadoes at the end of a storm system that moved east from Oklahoma from April 14 to April 16.
Steve Carroll, vice president and general manager for North Carolina Farm Bureau Insurance, said of the damage in North Carolina, "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.
For State Farm, much of the volume is coming from the insurer's Southern Zone, which consists of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina. More than 15,500 claims have been filed in that zone, with more than 12,000 from Alabama, says spokesman David Majors.
Majors says the most recent claims figures come from a mobile claims center in Bessemer, Ala.—one of five centers set up in the state. Centers have also been set up in Georgia and Mississippi, he adds.
"Some of the people who come have no clothes other than what they are wearing," Majors says. "Their house and everything in it were blown away. We have been trying to get people housing and an advance for some clothes."
He adds, "It's tough to hear the stories. We've been doing a lot of listening."
In Missouri spokesman Jim Camoriano reports 1,763 homeowners and 961 auto claims as of early April 28 due to the St. Louis-area tornado.
About $410,000 has already been paid out there, he adds.
As of late April 28 State Farm has fielded nearly 4,000 claims in Arkansas. Spokesman Gary Stephenson says the total jumped 700 claims from April 27 as homeowners assessed damages from the April 25 storms.
"We continue to anticipate many more claims in the coming days," Stephenson says.
State Farm in 2010 had about 25 percent of the personal-lines insurance market share in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Missouri, according to Highline Data.
The insurer is the top writer of personal-lines insurance in the U.S., with a 19.3 percent market share.
Highline Data is part of Summit Business Media, which also owns National Underwriter.
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