Insurance claims after recent hail storm total $352 million
By Kody Fisher Published: August 23, 2016, 9:51 pm
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo — We finally learned the total cost of damages from the massive hail storm in late July.
Chances are you remember this one – with golf and tennis ball-sized hail pelting our area.
Over 84,000 insurance claims totaled a whopping $352 million, making it the fourth most expensive hail storm in the state’s history.
It’s never fun to have to deal with filing insurance claims, especially when there are so many other people doing it at the same time.
That just speaks to how big this storm actually was.
“I’ve heard that this is like the hundred year hail storm,” said homeowner and claim filer Dave Miller.
“I’ve been here for 17 years and I’ve never seen one like this,” said State Farm Agent Scott Richter.
It took some people until the next day to fully understand how much damage there was.
“All the trees were strafed, lot of damage, lot of limbs down, lot of shredded screens, debris all over the place. So you kinda just pick and choose where you want to look at for a visual,” said Miller.
He’s not alone – there were a lot of other people also filing claims.
“Mostly car claims, homeowner claims. Roofing, gutters, paint, siding, windows broken. It’s very rare that a hail storms breaks out car windows and this was sufficient enough to do that,” said Richter.
If you’re someone who has to replace your roof because of this hail damage, or if you’re somebody who just doesn’t want that type of damage to happen to you, they suggest putting a hail resistant shingle on your roof.
“They drop a two-inch steel ball 20-feet two times in the same spot on the shingle. Once it survives that test it meets the class four standard,” said Richter.
Getting a class four roof installed could save you close to 25 percent on your insurance premiums, which insurance agents said will go up slightly for everyone, because of the possibility of a storm like this happening again.
One homeowner said its part of being in Colorado.
“This is all expected for being here and so you roll with it,” said Miller.
If you filed a claim and got a check that had your name and the name of your home lender on it, you’ll need to call your lender to make sure that there aren’t any snags or delays for using that money to fix your house.
