State Farm Storm Claims in Hundreds of Thousands

State Farm says it has paid almost $1 billion on about 300,000 catastrophe claims from devastating storms across the central and southeastern United States over the past two months.

The Pantagraph in Bloomington reported that State Farm says about 284,000 of the claims are from April storms that included tornadoes in the South. State Farm is based in Bloomington.

Storms in Missouri, Oklahoma and elsewhere have so far generated 11,000 new claims.

State Farm says it averages about 800,000 catastrophe claims a year and pays out about $3.8 billion.

Heavier claims can translate into losses for the company. State Farm says it lost $542 million in 2008. More than 1 million claims that year cost the company $6.3 billion.