Texas tallies up tornado damage

The insurance bill associated with last month’s punishing assault on the state is staggering, say officials

Insurance News

By Lyle Adriano

Preliminary figures by the Insurance Council of Texas reveal that the whirlwinds that struck North Texas just recently caused an overwhelming $1.2 billion total worth of insured damage—a scale so large, that the damage is among the area’s costliest in recent years.

Over the weekend, another twister swept through Farmersville, bringing the total number of post-holiday whirlwinds that hit the Collin, Dallas and Ellis counties to 10.

Tornadoes that carried winds up to 200 mph developed over the Dallas area the day after Christmas, claiming eleven lives and leaving hundreds without a home of their own. The tornadoes then moved south to Ellis County, then northward toward Collin County, causing even more destruction in their wake.

About 1,000 homes may have been damaged or destroyed outright by the whirlwinds.

At around the same time, a blizzard beset the state’s panhandle and much of its western portion, disrupting highways and cutting power to thousands of homes. The northwestern portion of the state, in particular, was most affected by the heavy snowfall. The Amarillo Fire Department confirmed that certain areas experienced as much as 12-foot deep snowdrifts.

Mark Hanna, a representative of the Insurance Council of Texas in Austin, said that the cost of the damage caused by the inclement weather conditions is likely to increase as auditors continue to assess the damage wrought.
 

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