A number of insurance companies have suffered considerable business losses due to the series of hailstorms that struck the North Texas area last month.
The hailstorms that hit the Dallas-Fort Worth region this year caused approximately billions of dollars in damage, said bizjournals.com. The Insurance Council of Texas said that the March 16 storm produced approximately $600 million in insured losses to property, while the weather event that occurred March 23 caused around $700 million in estimated damages.
The April 11 hailstorm that bombarded Collin County with hailstones the size of softballs did about $300 in estimated damages.
On April 12—a day after Collin County’s calamity—San Antonio suffered an estimated $1.36 billion in damages due to a devastating hailstorm that ruined 110,000 vehicles and thousands of homes. According to the Insurance Council of Texas, this hailstorm is the state’s costliest yet.
Not all cities were ravaged by hail, but suffered huge hits to properties nonetheless. Houston sustained flooding from the nearby Colorado River, costing $400 million in damages related to automobiles.
Insurers naturally took a beating from the recent severe weather events.
“Net and operating income of $691 million and $698 million, respectively, declined from the prior year quarter primarily due to an increase in catastrophe losses of $101 million after-tax ($156 million pre-tax), mainly arising out of hail storms that occurred in Texas in late March," The
Travelers Companies said in a news release.
The insurance group’s profit for the first quarter fell 17%—a record decrease since 2011—reported Bloomberg. Travelers attributed its losses to mounting catastrophe costs.
Bloomberg also noted several other insurers that were financially hurt following the catastrophes that struck Texas. Progressive’s first quarter profit fell by 13%, and
Allstate took a $538 million hit to its finances due to the region’s hailstorms.
