Advertise
Resources
Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
AIR Worldwide Corp. estimated Monday that a series of tornadoes and other severe weather in the United States May will result in insured losses of $4 billion to $7 billion.
The catastrophe modeler's estimate of insured losses in the May 20-27 storms includes residential, commercial and industrial properties and their contents, as well as automobiles.
While May usually is the most active month for tornadoes, April also was an active month for tornadoes, AIR scientists said in a statement.
The May “outbreak of tornadoes, coupled with the unusually high number of tornadoes in April this year, has turned what began as an unremarkable year into a year—so far—that has produced almost twice as many preliminary tornado reports as the average since 2005, and that is on track to rival the very active 2008 season,” Tim Doggett, principal scientist for Boston-based AIR, said in the statement.
Storms set record
“It is also becoming quickly apparent that 2011 will surpass 2008 in terms of insured losses from severe thunderstorm activity…the two major outbreaks of this year are the costliest on record,” Mr. Doggett said.
During the seven-day period in late May, more than 150 tornadoes were confirmed with severe weather stretching from Lake Superior to central to the East Coast affecting more than 20 states, Mr. Doggett said.
Minnesota, Kansas, Texas, Indiana and Missouri were the states hit hardest by the severe weather in late May, AIR said, including the massive tornado in that hit Joplin, Mo.
AIR also said that the Joplin tornado, which cut a path about three-quarters of a mile wide and about 14 miles long, flattened more than 500 commercial properties as well as more than 8,000 houses and apartments. It was the deadliest tornado to hit the U.S. in more than half a century, with the latest death toll at 141.
JOPLIN, Mo.—To view the battered husk of St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., is to know the terrifying and destructive power of the EF-5 tornado that struck the city on May 22.