Texas hailstorm damage may reach $2 billion in insured losses

A hailstorm that pounded the Dallas area on June 13 could result in insurance claims of up to $2 billion, according to the Southwestern Insurance Information Service (SIIS).

“Based upon the claims filed within the past 36 hours, this storm could reach $1.5 billion to $2 billion in insured losses,” SIIS President Sandra Helin said in a statement. “This is preliminary and we are hopeful that the damage estimates fall short of what we are predicting.”

The storm, which spawned baseball-sized hail, left tens of thousands of vehicles and thousands of homes damaged. The storms were the worst in the area in at least nine years, according to the National Weather Service. If the SIIS estimate is accurate, the June 13 hailstorm could be one of the most destructive of its kind in U.S. history.

State Farm, the largest property insurer in Texas with more than a quarter of the market, said that as of June 15, it had about 8,000 auto insurance claims and just over 3,000 homeowners’ claims from the Dallas storm, according to Reuters news service.