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US severe weather losses in June likely over $2 billion

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Storm Costs Soar: Texas hail damage is expected to exceed $1 billion.

Severe weather in the US last month cost insurers nearly $2 billion — making it the most costly month so far this year — nearly doubling the losses seen in previous months.According to Aon Benfield’s monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report, which reviews the natural disaster perils that occurred worldwide during the month of June, the loss total does not include all claims from the wildfire outbreaks in Colorado or a recent severe weather system that swept through the Midwest and mi-Atlantic states at the end of June.The most costly of perils that caused damage during the month of June was a hailstorm that pummeled parts of Texas and New Mexico, the report says. Damage from that storm is expected to exceed 100,000 claims worth more than $1 billion in insured losses, Aon reported, citing data from the Texas Insurance Council.During the massive three-hour hailstorm, baseball-sized hail rained down on the Dallas-Fort Worth area on the evening of June 13, just as local highways were jammed with commuter traffic. The hail damaged thousands of cars, punctured skylights at a local mall and shattered the expensive tile roofs of hundreds of homes — making it one of the most expensive storms in Texas history.A separate hailstorm in Colorado and Wyoming produced more than $700 million in insurable losses.The state of Colorado last month also saw two massive wildfires consume about 105,500 acres, including 600 homes near Fort Collins and Colorado Springs. As of yesterday, the fire near Colorado Springs, dubbed the Waldo Canyon fire, was fully contained, three weeks after it erupted. The fire only burned 18,200 acres, but it was the most destructive in the state’s history. It killed two people and, according to the Aon report, the 347 homes destroyed in that fire had a market value of $110.2 million.The High Park blaze outside of Fort Collins was contained in early July, but not before destroying 259 homes and leaving one person dead."The Colorado wildfires proved to be the two most damaging fires in state history, and also two of the costliest,” said Steve Jakubowski, President of Impact Forecasting, Aon’s catastrophe model development centre. “Impact Forecasting is the only firm to have developed a brushfire catastrophe model for the western states in the US, which allows us to provide detailed feedback to our clients following events such as these.”As claims keep rolling in for the Colorado wildfires, insurers are also still dealing with the effects of a recent severe weather system that swept through 13 Midwest and mid-Atlantic states. From Iowa in the West to New Jersey in the East and Ohio in the North to the Carolinas in the South, US insurance companies have reported receiving 84,000 claims thus far.While many Western states experience drought in June, Florida was drenched by Tropical Storm Debby which brought with it days of torrential rain and flooded more than 7,500 homes and businesses, according to Aon. Preliminary economic damages were listed at $100 million.

Deadly & Destructive: Colorado suffered the most damaging and costly fired in state history last month.