Less than two weeks ago, five tornadoes ripped through parts of San Antonio, Texas, leaving a trail of damage in its wake and a mounting insurance bill.
Total losses from the event are expected to total $100 million, said Mark Hanna, spokesman for the Insurance Council of Texas, last week.
Insurers in Texas are projecting that they will receive around 10,000 property claims as a result of the damage caused by tornadoes, high winds and hail, Hanna added.
Gary Jackson, habitational practice at Quirk & Company, told Insurance Business that the information coming through from agents indicated that there has been an exponential jump in claims as a result of the event, both in personal and business lines.
Jackson said it was difficult to quantify the level of claims coming through, as agents are constantly receiving them, and the number would likely continue to rise over the coming months.
However, he said that Hanna’s indication of a $100 million insurance bill was a “good estimate.”
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San Antonio is not an area that usually sees tornadoes, Jackson said, so the tornadoes last month were an unexpected event that came as a surprise to most.
In the wake of the storm, insurance carriers will likely be “looking to raise deductible amounts,” Jackson said.
Flat dollar deductibles for wind-related losses are likely to be replaced by a percentage of the TIV (total insured value) of the property, he added.
But while the latest $100 million bill is significant, it’s certainly not the biggest the area has faced.
The last major event – a hailstorm that damaged homes and automobiles in 2016 – resulted in a $1.36 billion repair bill, Hanna said.
“There’s literally no comparison,” he added.
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