Storms and tornadoes cause $100s of millions in damage

Severe convective storms and tornadoes which swept across the southern US after Christmas caused hundreds of millions of dollars in insured losses, according to Aon’s weekly catastrophe update. 

The storms across nine states caused four deaths and 25 injuries as dozens of communities across nine states were hit by heavy rainfall, wind gusts exceeding 70 mph, hail up to 2.75 inches and more than 80 tornadoes.

Over 600,000 customers also lost power as a result of severe weather between December 26 and December 29. 

In Texas, multiple suburbs of Houston sustained significant tornado damage, much of central Mississippi was also heavily impacted by severe weather while in Alabama, the town of Athens was directly hit by an EF-1 tornado, resulting in dozens of downtown buildings suffering damage. 

“Given the extent of severe weather impacts across the southeast US, including multiple towns sustaining significant tornado damage, aggregated economic and insured losses may reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

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