Preliminary claims figures from the May 10 tornadoes in Oklahoma project losses in the millions, said Marc Young, Oklahoma assistant insurance commissioner. Johns believes the initial storm will produce losses in the “tens of millions of dollars.”
Johns said the two storms likely will be the second- most expensive in the 25 years he has been in the insurance business in Oklahoma. Johns, who tracks the insurance industry in Oklahoma and Texas, said the storms probably will be topped only by the destruction of Hurricane Ike, which ripped through Galveston and Houston in 2008.
The auto repair business is still reeling from the slew of hail storms that continue to hit the state.
Body Works Inc., a mobile auto glass repairer in Oklahoma City, told customers to wrap damaged car windows in plastic because it could be a couple weeks before they'd get to them.
“We’re not scheduling at this point, we just have a waiting list and are calling people from that,” said Chris Donnelly.
A second hail storm rained down golf ball to baseball-sized hail on Sunday May 16, causing further delays in windshield repairs.
“It just peppered everything in sight,” said Chris Donnelly, “it is absolutely blowing us up.”
Body Works is seeing a lot of complete windshield replacements and paint less dent repairs, but about 50% of cars coming in are being totaled.
At Eskridge Lexus, tents made to withstand hail stones protectedsome of the newest cars on the lot. But about 200 other vehicles had cracked windshields and dents.
“Our plans are to repair everything and then disclose that to customers,” said general sales manager Doug Berryhill.
