TORNADOES CAUSE $1.2BN INSURED LOSS IN TEXAS…

The nine tornadoes that touched down in the Dallas area of Texas on December 26 killed 11 people and caused around $1.2bn in insured losses, the Insurance Council of Texas has estimated. Around 1,500 homes and 500 other structures, and an even higher number of vehicles, were damaged or destroyed by the tornadoes, which generated winds as high as 200 mph. The council has yet to offer a preliminary estimate of the insured losses arising from the winter storm that paralysed the northwest half of Texas with a foot or more of snow the last week of December. The US National Weather Service deemed the storm a “historic blizzard.” In Oklahoma, the storm brought ice to western and central parts of the state and flooding to the east and northeast. Governor Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency for all 77 counties in the state.