Insurance claims numbers for the Joplin tornado are starting to come in and the statistics are mind-boggling. The Missouri Department of Insurance says more than $500 million worth of insurance claims have been paid out, nearly two-thirds of it to homeowners. More than $34 million has been paid in auto insurance claims. Businesses have received nearly $160 million for their properties.
In all, nearly 15,000 claims have been filed so far with another 2,000 expected. John M. Huff, director of the Dept. of Insurance, said those numbers will climb.
"This will be the largest insurance event in Missouri history, and these numbers confirm that the insurance industry is playing a vital role in Joplin's recovery. This is half a billion dollars already reinvested into the local economy, and we expect it to be three to four times that amount by the time all claims are settled," Huff says.
That means the final cost to insurers will be between $1.5 billion to $2 billion. That figure alone doesn't take into account trash removal, FEMA money or disaster assistance from various non-profit agencies being poured into Joplin's relief efforts.
Nor does the figure take into account volunteer hours spent helping to clean up debris. The economic impact of the tornado will be staggering no matter how you crunch the numbers.
In terms of time, in about 30 minutes the massive EF5 tornado destroyed billions of dollars of construction. Houses and stores that took years to build up as Joplin expanded to the east were destroyed in minutes or even seconds because of high winds.
It's difficult for me to wrap my mind around such a thing. In a year of huge disasters like the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, it's still hard to believe that something on this earth can destroy human lives in mere seconds.
Compared to other billion-dollar disasters in U.S. history, the tornado outbreak of May 22 to May 27 was highly destructive. The tornado did more damage than Hurricane Dolly in 2008. The outbreak from May 22 to May 27 may reach $7 billion in total damage.
The National Weather Service states disaster estimates, if they hold through the rest of 2011, will make 2011 the worst year on record since the government tracked insurance losses. Data goes back to 1980 for such disasters that have cost billions of dollars.
So far in 2011, nearly $32 billion has been lost in eight separate weather-related events. Last year, only three major events saw more than a billion dollars in damage. Hurricane season hasn't even gotten to its peak yet and it's expected to be more active than normal.
The statistics show what Americans already know about 2011--it's a bad year for weather extremes.
William Browning, a lifelong Missouri resident, writes about local and state issues for the Yahoo! Contributor Network. Born in St. Louis, Browning earned his bachelor's degree in English from the University of Missouri. He currently resides in Branson.
