A train conductor waiting for a signal change saw a massive EF-3 tornado coming toward him on April 26 in Waverly, Nebraska. He held on as the twister knocked over train cars and broke windows.
Part of the recent deadly tornado outbreak that happened April 25-28 will likely be one of 2024’s billion-dollar natural disasters.
CoreLogic, a natural disaster analysis firm, used computer modeling to estimate a staggering $2.1 billion price tag to rebuild and repair residential properties alone from tornadoes on April 25 and 26. More than 7,000 single and multifamily homes could have been damaged.
During those two days, the National Weather Service had 127 tornado reports. The strongest of which was an EF-4 tornado that devastated Marietta, Oklahoma, on Saturday, killing a person.
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“The combined reconstruction cost of the 7,229 residential properties is $2.1 billion,” explained CoreLogic’s Jon Schneyer. “This does not include businesses, infrastructure, government buildings, auto or any other business units; only residential properties.”
The numbers also do not include the deadly tornadoes that struck on April 28. So far, the NWS has confirmed that 17 tornadoes tore across Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas on Sunday.
Iowa appears to be the hardest hit during storms April 26 and 27, tallying up nearly 4,000 damaged or destroyed homes. The estimated rebuilding cost is over $1 billion alone.
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The number of damaged and destroyed homes by April 26-27 tornadoes.
(CoreLogic / FOX Weather)
Oklahoma lost an estimated 1,396 homes with a rebuilding cost of almost $280 million. Nebraska followed with an estimated 1,203 homes lost, costing $531 million to rebuild. Those rebuilding costs include materials and labor.
Total economic losses expected to top $1 billion
On Wednesday, reinsurer Gallagher Re announced the company expects insured losses from storms April 25-28 to hit at least $1 billion. Losses are different than the cost of rebuilding.
This comes on the heels of a record-breaking March 13-14 hail event. The NWS recorded 78 reports of hail that was 2 inches or larger, according to Schneyer. Hail up to softball-size fell.
CoreLogic estimated that hail larger than 3 inches, capable of requiring a roof replacement, fell on more than 27,000 homes. Hail between 1 and 3 inches fell on over 622,550 homes.
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FILE: Large hail damages patrol cars in Southern Indiana
(Indiana State Police / FOX Weather)
“This drove a minimum of $10 billion in insured losses alone, and this total is likely to grow,” Chief Science Officer of Gallager Re Steve Bowen commented on social media.
“U.S. severe convective storm activity through April has resulted in a minimum of $14 billion in insured losses, and this total is going to keep rising as damage surveys remain ongoing and insurers continue to process claims during the last four months of above-average SCS activity,” Bowen said in a statement to Business Insurance.
Just in the first quarter of 2024, Gallagher estimated that natural catastrophes caused $43 billion in economic loss, $20 billion of which is insured across the world. The Q1 2024 Natural Catastrophe and Climate Report counted at least 11 billion-dollar economic loss events and at least $4 billion-insured loss events.
So far NOAA has just confirmed two billion-dollar losses for 2024: Hail tornado and wind damage from March 13-15 and the January tornado outbreak across the South and East Coast.
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File: Storm damage in Marianna, Florida. Jan. 9, 2024.
(Brandon Clement / LSM / FOX Weather)
“Q1 is not typically a major annual loss driver. On both an economic and insured loss basis, it has accounted for 14% of annual costs during the past decade,” Bowen commented on social media. “Weather / climate related losses in particular tend to spike during Q2-Q3 as peak seasons for severe convective storm (SCS), tropical cyclone, flood, and drought arrive in the Northern Hemisphere.”
Bowen wrote that he will keep an eye on the transition from El Niño to La Niña, which could supercharge the Atlantic hurricane season.
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For 2023, NOAA tallied up a record 28 separate billion-dollar disasters in the U.S. that killed at least 492 people and caused more than $92 billion.