May Storms Cause $2.5B In Insured Damages: Report

Twelve states will each see insured damages topping $100 million as the weather system that hit the U.S. from May 11-16 caused a total of $2.5 billion in commercial and residential claims, according to a report Tuesday from Boston-based catastrophe modeler Karen Clark & Co. The report said that most states east of the Rockies got hit by the “Ring of Fire” weather system, with most of the damage in the Midwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are each expected to see $100 million in insured losses, the report said.

Most of the storm activity was along an arc from Texas to Kansas, through the Ohio Valley to the Mid-Atlantic states, which meteorologists refer to as a “ring of fire,” according to the KCC report.

The storms lasted several days and generated more than 900 reports of wind gusts in excess of 58 mph, over 500 hail reports, 28 tornadoes, and more than 600,000 power outages, the report said.