Today's Costs Of 1974 Tornado Outbreak

Risk Management Solutions Inc. (RMS), a provider of products and services for catastrophe risk management, announced the release of an in-depth study of potential costs to the U.S. insurance industry from a recurrence of the Tornado Super Outbreak of April 3-4, 1974. Considered one of the worst weather disasters in U.S. history, the outbreak produced tornadoes across 13 states in a single day. If the event were to happen today, RMS estimates that insured losses could reach as much as $3.5 billion from wind damage alone. This would exceed the record-setting losses from an outbreak in May 2003 that caused an estimated $3.13 billion in total insured losses, according to the Property Claims Service of the Insurance Services Office. The 1974 Super Outbreak developed to the southeast of an extratropical low-pressure system near the Iowa-Illinois border.