Insured Losses from Amarillo Hailstorm Climb to $500M

A massive hailstorm that moved through the Amarillo, Texas, area on May 28 has resulted in $500 million in insured losses to the panhandle region.

The final figure was released by the Property Claim Services of the Insurance Services Office (ISO), which tallies catastrophic weather losses across the country.

Hail up to the size of baseballs moved directly through the center of Amarillo causing wind and hail damage to approximately 75 percent of the residential property in the city. The storm has become the city’s costliest weather catastrophe on record.

The storm system moved out of the Texas panhandle into Oklahoma where it caused an additional $450 million in damage. In all, seven states were affected by the storm system with insured losses totaling $1.3 billion.

“The Amarillo hailstorm just became the 10th costliest storm on record in the state,” said Mark Hanna, a spokesman for the Insurance Council of Texas. “The losses from this hailstorm are comparable to Hurricane Dolly that struck South Padre Island back in 2008.”

The Insurance Council of Texas had previously estimated Amarillo’s insured losses from the storm to be $400 million. ISO recalculated the storm’s losses in coming up with the new figure.

The Insurance Council of Texas