Texas Tornadoes Cause Record $2B In Damages

Oct. 23--Insurance experts estimated on Wednesday that the tornadoes which slammed North Texas on Sunday night caused $2 billion in damage, making it the costliest tornado event in Texas history.

North Texans had filed 8,300 house claims and an additional 6,000 automobile claims from the storms, and those numbers are expected to double, said Mark Hanna of the Insurance Council of Texas.

"There's a lot of commercial property damaged," Hanna said in a Wednesday telephone interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Hanna did not have an estimate on the commercial buildings damaged.

The previous record for tornado damage was $1.2 billion from tornadoes that hit the Garland-Rowlett area on Dec. 26, 2015.

The damage Sunday came from nine tornadoes in North Texas, two of which were in Dallas County. No one was killed in the storm.

An EF-3 hit North Dallas packing winds of 140 mph, according to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.

"We're talking 16 miles for 40 minutes," Hanna said referring to the North Dallas tornado.

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