Know how bad the recent hail damage was?
You should, as we keep talking about it.
It shut down Colorado Mills, made it near impossible to get a rental car while yours was in the shop for hail damage, which by the way, may take you a while to get fixed.
The Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association (RMIIA) said the hail damage led to more than an estimated 150,000 auto insurance claims and 50,000 homeowners insurance claims to be filed.
With all that, the May 8 weather event is on its way to go down as the most expensive hailstorm in Colorado’s history.
"It's both the numbers of claims have increased and the cost to pay those claims. So you look back at July 11, 1990, which folks who have lived in Colorado remember that storm where it blew through in 45 minutes and caused all of that damage. When you look at that 1990 storm and compare it to this storm, we're just seeing more claims come in and the cost to pay those claims has just skyrocketed. We have more people living in Colorado, more cars out on the roadways, and then the cost to repair has gone up as well - so unfortunately all of those factors are working against us," said Carole Walker, the executive director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association.
RMIIA estimates the preliminary insurance losses to be at about $1.4 billion, which would exceed the $845.5 million storm of July 20, 2009 and the $1.1 billion storm of July 11, 1990, after costs are adjusted to reflect the current dollar.
"The enormous size of the hail hitting densely populated areas of the Denver-Metro during rush hour has contributed to the magnitude of damage caused by this storm," said Walker.
She added new high-tech cars are are adding to the storm cost.
"We have all this cool technology now in the vehicles, that's great, but it also makes it much more expensive to repair and takes longer to repair," she said.
Walker noted these are preliminary estimates, officials expect the storm cost to rise.
"This is still an early snapshot. Some companies have projected out what they think the claims will be, others have just given us the number of claims that they have. Unfortunately, when you have this magnitude of storm this will be months out as people continue to observe damage, file claims, both for their cars for their homes," said Walker.
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