April’s Tornadoes Destroyed, Damaged 14,000 Alabama Homes

The swarm of tornadoes that killed more than 230 people across Alabama last month destroyed or heavily damaged more than 13,000 homes statewide and will smash the record set by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 to become the state’s costliest disaster ever, officials said.

The American Red Cross said its statewide assessment of damaged residences showed that twisters destroyed 6,237 single-family homes across Alabama and heavily damaged another 5,039 homes. A spokeswoman for the organization, Gena Robinson, said 1,275 mobile homes were destroyed, and 615 had major damage.

Another 295 apartment units are gone, the survey found, and 163 had major damage.

The twisters caused minor damage to 4,613 homes, mobile homes or apartments that are mostly still habitable, and it affected another 4,824 dwellings with even less-severe damage such as debris on the roof or broken windows.

The agency’s findings, which are the most complete public accounting yet of the damage to residences during the April 27 outbreak, will be shared with both state and federal emergency management officials. Robinson said the Red Cross uses the numbers to determine where to place shelters and how much aid is needed.

“They literally go street by street, neighbor by neighbor in areas where there’s been damage,” she said.

Separately, the San Francisco-based Risk Management Solutions said the tornadoes could add up to as much as $6 billion in insured losses across the Southeast, with as much as $4.2 billion of that occurring in Alabama, which bore the brunt of the storms. A previous estimate released a week ago by another disaster assessment company, AIR Worldwide, estimated insurance losses in the state could reach $2.6 billion.

Either estimate easily eclipses the loss record set seven years ago when Ivan slammed into the Alabama coast at Gulf Shores and left some $2 billion in damage.

Risk Management Solutions said the EF-4 tornado that tore through Tuscaloosa and Jefferson counties with winds as strong as 190 mph could account for as much as $2.4 billion in insurance losses on its own. The twister killed at least 65 people and left a track of destruction about 80 miles through heavily populated areas, according to the National Weather Service.