US Winter Storm Uri Insured Loss May Reach Double-Digit Billions

The ongoing winter storm event in the United States, named winter storm Uri, is thought likely to become the largest winter storm loss on record for the insurance and reinsurance industry, while the Texas insurance regulator said it could have a bigger impact than hurricane Harvey.

Texas is the state front and centre of the media related to this event, but the winter storm has impacted much more of the country, with a significant percentage of the U.S. seeing freezing temperatures, snow and also storm activity as well.

Tornadoes were seen in the Carolina’s and frozen weather has damaged the energy infrastructure further south, leaving people without heat, electricity and even water in some cases.

The upshot of this is a huge number of insurance claims are expected, with the Texas Insurance Commission saying they anticipate a larger number of claims than were seen with 2017’s hurricane Harvey.

In fact, the Dallas Morning News reported that Camille Garcia of the Insurance Council of Texas said that 100’s of thousands of insurance claims are expected, with the storm having the potential to become the states costliest insurance catastrophe on record.