May 26, 2011
By: Carrie Van Brunt-Wiley
Just hours after residents in Joplin, Missouri, began assessing homeowners insurance losses from the deadliest U.S. tornado in 64 years, homeowners in Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and other parts of this region are preparing for more severe weather.
Tornadoes killed at least 14 people Tuesday and forecasters now say broad swaths of the South and Midwest could experience tornadoes up to 200 miles an hour in speed, reported the New York Times. Western Tennessee, northeastern Arkansas, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, southeastern Missouri and southern Indiana were all on alert for severe storms late Wednesday, and residents were encouraged to head to safer grounds sooner rather than later in order to mitigate the potential loss of life.
"We are looking for a widespread tornado outbreak," Walt Zaleski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told the paper. "There is the very high potential for tornadoes, hail and damaging winds."
Early estimates after the storm in Missouri - considered the deadliest tornado since 1947 and the first since 1953 to claim more than 100 lives - said property insurance companies could lose between $1 billion and $3 billion in property damage, according to the risk modeling firm Eqecat.
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