A series of severe thunderstorms and a possible “derecho” event caused over $400 million in insured losses for Ohio, making it the third costliest disaster in the state’s history.
Preliminary estimates from the Ohio Insurance Institute (OII) released Monday say insured losses totaled between $433.5 million and $440 million for the six-day period between June 28 and July 4, when several severe convective storms hit the state.
Ohio’s estimates are the highest from storms that caused overall insured losses of $1.125 billion in the region, according to Property Claim Service (PCS) data cited by the OII. An additional $300 million in losses from a July 4th event were spread across five states — including Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — according to the PCS.
During the event over 800 preliminary storm and wind reports were taken with peak wind gusts of 100 miles per hour, according to the OII which cites National Weather Service data. In addition, a powerful derecho (fast moving straightline windstorm) traveled 600 miles across the Ohio valley in 10 hours with an average speed of 60 mph. Five deaths were attributed to the storms, the OII added.
The estimates put the late summer storms as the third costliest natural disaster to hit Ohio on modern history, behind 2008‘s Hurricane Ike and the 1974 Xenia tornado super-outbreak. In addition, the storms are the eighth major natural disaster to hit Ohio since 2011, which includes two winter storms in 2011 and six wind-hail storms.
