The state commissioner has reported that the damage caused by the E5 will be in the billions of dollars.
John Doak, the Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner, has stated that it is likely that the tornado that struck the Oklahoma City suburb will generate homeowners insurance claims that will be higher than the twister that hit Joplin, Missouri in 2011.
Doak stated that Joplin’s storm caused about $3 billion in damage, and that “This will likely exceed that.”
The commissioner made his statement after having toured the devastated are
a. He said that the insured losses, including business, auto, and homeowners insurance, were about $2 billion in Joplin and that as claims continue to rise as they are settled. It is believed that the storm in Oklahoma will bring about claim totals even higher than that.
Homeowners insurance claims resulting from tornadoes are on the rise in the United States.
This is because over the last five years, tornadoes have been doing a record amount of damage. Car owners, businesses, and property owners are filing claims more frequently and that are more expensive. This trend has led homeowners insurance premiums to rise, especially in states such as Oklahoma, where they are prone to these catastrophic storms.
This year hadn’t been considered a “bad” one for tornadoes until the massive storm struck the suburb of Oklahoma City. As of Monday, there had been 274 tornadoes reported across the United States. This was considerably lower than the average for May 20, which is 491. Many were hoping that this would be a welcome calm year, after having undergone so many that have been filled with devastatingly violent storms. Homeowners insurance loses have been breaking records year after year, not to mention the overwhelmingly heartbreaking losses of life.
The efforts to clean up after the deadly and catastrophic tornado in Oklahoma, along the massive 20 mile path it carved to the south of the capital city of the state. It is still far too early to tell what the total homeowners insurance losses will be, but what has been made clear is that they will be sizeable, and likely far greater than the losses from many other tornadoes that the country has seen.
