April Storms Cause Estimated $65M Damage Across Texas
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An insurance group says last weekend's storms across north and central parts of Texas have caused at least $65 million in damage to vehicles.
The Insurance Council of Texas reported Thursday that damage estimates for homes and businesses are still being compiled.
"Hail and windstorm claims are still coming in from almost every corner of the state," said Mark Hanna, a spokesman for the Insurance Council of Texas. "Hail, wind damage and tornadoes is startling because it shows the widespread severity of bad weather in Texas in just the month of April."
A statement from the Austin-based industry group says four Texas storms in the past two weeks are blamed for about 60,000 auto insurance claims.
The National Weather Service says at least eight tornadoes touched down in an area from Rio Vista to Cleburne late Sunday. Nobody was hurt.
Those storms included hail (up to softball size), heavy rain and flash flooding that swamped some roads and prompted several high-water rescues.
Gregg Potter, the president and meteorologist for AnythingWeather, said despite the massive number of storms and damage reports, the state's largest cities did not receive a direct hit.
"Although there have been some big events, mainly large hail just outside San Antonio, Houston, Ft. Worth, and Austin, we have yet to have one of these events with big hail actually move through a city center," said Potter.
Other storms happened west of Austin and north of Houston on April 18, near Amarillo on April 22 and west of San Antonio last Saturday.
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