Dallas Hailstorm Loss Estimated at Nearly $1B

Insured losses from violent hailstorm in Dallas in mid-June should be just under $1 billion, a trade group for Texas insurers said.

That amount is sharply less than what another industry trade group previously estimated.

The Insurance Council of Texas, via its spokesman’s Twitter account, said losses should fall “just short of” $1 billion from the storm, which was the worst of its kind in the area in about nine years.

The Southwestern Insurance Information Service, which speaks for insurers in Texas and Oklahoma, had preliminarily estimated losses at $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

Even with the lowered estimate, though, the Dallas storm still ranks as one of the larger hail losses ever. According to the Insurance Information Institute, hail storms typically cause about $1 billion in damage annually.

Several days after the storm State Farm, the largest personal property insurer in Texas with more than a quarter of the market, said it had received nearly 17,000 claims from the storm, about two-thirds for autos and the rest for homes.

USAA, the military-focused insurer that ranks in the top five in the state, said it had received about 5,000 claims at that time.