“Oklahoma’s policyholders (click here) received nearly $2 billion from their insurers in 2013 after multiple, deadly tornadoes struck Oklahoma, changing forever communities such as Moore,” said Dr. Robert Hartwig, president of the I.I.I. and an economist, at the National Tornado Summit in Oklahoma City, Okla.
Besides Oklahoma ($1.99 billion), insured natural disaster-caused insurance claims payouts in 2013 were highest in Texas ($1.51 billion), Colorado ($907 million), Minnesota ($845 million) and Nebraska ($773 million). Total U.S. natural disaster-caused insurance claims payouts came to $12.79 billion in 2013, with $10.27 billion of that figure attributable to tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. The balance was due to events such as winter storms and wildfires.
Indeed, Oklahoma is second only to Texas as the site of insured claims payouts resulting from tornado/thunderstorm/hail catastrophes for the years 2000-2013, with Oklahoma cumulatively generating $9.8 billion, and Texas a total of $16.9 billion, within this same time period. Since 2000, insurers have paid $135 billion on millions of claims in all 50 states from severe convective events including tornadoes.
“Hurricanes like 2012’s Sandy generate headlines, even though it is the frequency and severity of tornadoes that has grown in recent years, reaching its peak in 2011, when some of the deadliest and costliest tornadoes in U.S. history swept through cities such as Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Joplin, Missouri,” Dr. Hartwig stated. Alabama and Missouri policyholders received more than $3 billion from their insurers in 2011.
Going back even further, an I.I.I. analysis of U.S. natural disasters dating to 1983 found that, in any given year, 36 percent of all natural disaster-caused claims payouts arose because of tornadoes, according to Dr. Hartwig’s presentation.
11:45 am Mon February 10, 2014
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Mayors from two communities hit by deadly EF5 tornadoes in recent years say more than three-quarters of residents who were displaced have rebuilt their homes or intend to do so.
Joplin Mayor Melodee Colbert-Kean and Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis says about 85 percent of residents whose homes were destroyed have rebuilt homes or plan to rebuild their homes.
The two mayors were part of a panel discussion at the third annual National Tornado Summit in Oklahoma City on Monday.
On May 22, 2011, an EF 5 tornado with wind speeds topping 200 mph whipped through Joplin, killing 161 people and destroying nearly 7,000 homes. Twenty five people were killed and 1,100 homes destroyed in an EF5 tornado in Moore on May 20, 2013.
Colbert-Kean says the recovery process is continuing.
