May Storms in Oklahoma Caused $1B in Damage

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One of the most destructive weather months in Oklahoma history could end up having the state’s highest insurance loss payout in recent memory, industry experts have said.

It will be months before all the claims are in from three major tornado outbreaks and a massive hailstorm that hit the Oklahoma City metropolitan area in May, but if estimates hold, the total amount figures to be more than $1 billion, said Jerry Johns, president of the Austin, Texas-based Southwestern Insurance Information Service.

The most damaging storm system in Oklahoma’s recent history was one that spawned 63 tornadoes on May 3 and 4, 1999, including a powerful twister packing winds of more than 300 mph that ripped through the Oklahoma City metro area. The storms caused about $1.41 billion in total damage, which includes more than insured losses, Johns said.

According to the Insurance Information Institute, the 1999 Oklahoma City-area tornado was the third-costliest on record anywhere in the U.S. – based on 2009 dollars – after twisters in June 1966 in Topeka, Kan., and May 1970 in Lubbock, Texas.

May “was a devastating month for Oklahoma,” said Marc Young, the state’s assistant insurance commissioner.

The National Weather Service’s current estimate of the number of tornadoes that touched down in Oklahoma in May is 57, said Rick Smith, a weather service meteorologist in Norman. If that number holds, that would be the fourth-highest monthly total in Oklahoma since the agency began keeping records in 1950.

Oklahoma’s annual average for tornadoes is about 53 per year.

On May 10, 31 tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma, and losses from those storms have been estimated at $595 million, Johns said. Of that, $475 million was personal property damage, $40 million was commercial damage and $80 million was vehicle damage.

Three days later, seven twisters touched down in Tulsa or northeastern Oklahoma. On May 16, a hailstorm swept through the Oklahoma City metro area, leaving a wide swath of damage. And on May 19, at least 12 tornadoes touched down in the state.

Young said he thinks the insurance claims from the hailstorm will exceed those from the May 10 tornado, which would put the total damage figure for the month well over $1 billion – and that’s not including damage from the other tornado outbreaks.

“Just a handful of storms on one day can completely change everything around here” Smith said.

Neil Cagle, president of Oklahoma City’s All American Roofing, said the hailstorm “has done way more” damage to roofs than the tornadoes. “The May 10 storm was a big storm for roofing, but the hailstorm obliterated a huge area of town,” he said. “We never want to see this kind of damage. We have a steady business, but (the hail) ruined a lot of really good roofs we wanted to see last longer.”

Roofers aren’t the only ones keeping busy, as insurance adjusters from around the nation descended upon Oklahoma after the storms. Young said many of them are working 14- to 16-hour days.

Young said one insurance company, which he declined to name, “is adjusting 700 vehicles a day” and set up a special center to expedite the process. He said it will be months before the state insurance department has any firm figures for the final damage total from May.

Johns said whether a particular insurer’s rates rise after a catastrophic event or series of events depends “on the profitability in each company and the number of losses they have sustained. Each company will have to look at everything under a microscope to see if a rate adjustment is necessary and that is going to vary from company to company. It’s impossible to predict what individual companies will do.”

But, he said, such weather events are not unexpected, particularly in Oklahoma. Insurance companies, he said, “know it’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when.”