Southern Tornadoes

A.M. Best Company - BestWire News Articles

JACKSON, Ky. February 14 (BestWire) — Insurers continue to cut checks and assess the damages from as many as two dozen mid-South tornadoes that reduced as many as 1,000 homes in a half dozen states to rubble.

Tennessee Farmers, the second-largest writer of homeowners multiperil in Tennessee after State Farm, has paid about $42 million on 3,586 total claims as of Feb. 13, said Dan Batie, spokesman for the Tennessee Farmers Insurance Cos. It has paid out $18.2 million on 642 claims as of Feb. 13 in Jackson — a "micropolitan" with about 100,000 people. Macon County, a more agricultural area where Tennessee Farmers has a large market share, also suffered extensive damage. The company has paid out about $18.4 million on 513 claims in Macon.

Those numbers are expected to rise, Batie said. The first to report were homeowners with uninhabitable homes and, depending on coverage, living expenses were doled out. But apparently, the kindness of residents appears to be slowing the claims process. "We had one (claimant) come in yesterday and say, 'I would have come in yesterday but I know there's folks worse off than me who need attention first,'" Batie said. "We're encouraging everyone to come in as soon as possible."

The path of the storm was about 100 to 200 yards wide, said Batie, about the scene he saw in Jackson, Tenn. "We're getting a lot of wind and hail claims from where these things (tornadoes) set down but it's not like one big hurricane that completely destroys one area. Some people don't have a home to go to while three blocks over, life goes on as usual."

A severe thunderstorm outbreak late Feb. 5 included tornadoes, heavy rain, lightning and hail — some the size of softballs — in Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, Alabama, Missouri and Mississippi, according to catastrophe modeler AIR Worldwide.

Hundreds of home were destroyed or damaged. The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced it was sending mobile homes from its Hope, Ark. facility to provide temporary housing to areas in Tennessee and Arkansas.

In Tennessee and Kentucky — two of the hardest hit by the storms — about 4,000 home and business claims have been taken by State Farm as of Feb. 13, said spokesman Jeff McCollum. Advanced living expenses have been distributed to many and the adjustment process is just beginning, he said.

Mobile catastrophe vehicles remained in Jackson and Lafayette, Tenn. as well as Central City, Ky., McCollum said.

The insurer also logged about 1,500 automobile claims and paid out about $985,000 for repairs and replacements.

Allstate spokeswoman Kate Hollcraft said mobile response units that were in Jackson, Tenn. and Gassville, Ark. were closing up Feb. 13 but "a number of adjusters remain on the ground." Claims numbers were not available.

Farmers Insurance and Safeco also reported sending claims professionals to the affected areas. Farmers deployed its mobile claims unit. Safeco said in a statement that its insurance foundation donated $15,000 to the Red Cross in Jackson.

The vast bulk of insured losses from tornadoes are suffered in the United States — more than $8 billion in insured losses in 2006, according to an April 2007 A.M. Best special report, U.S. Tornadoes.

Batie said the company would not know how the storms will affect the company's finances for at least a couple of weeks. In 2003, and again in 2006, despite experiencing significant catastrophe losses, the group was able to report favorable earnings, as well as increase surplus, according to an A.M. Best report on the company.