Declarations

A Bomb on Every Floor

“It truly was like a bomb went off almost on every floor.”

—Gary Pulsipher, chief executive at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., describes the damage caused to the nine-story hospital that was hit squarely by the EF5 tornado that rampaged through Joplin on May 22. As of May 30, the death toll from what is thought to have been a rare multi-vortex twister – with two or more small and intense centers of rotation orbiting the larger funnel – had reached at least 139, with 750 people hurt. The EF5 is the strongest rating assigned to tornadoes, with winds of more than 200 mph (320 kph).

Stretched Resources

“The disasters just keep coming.”

—American Red Cross spokesman Roger Lowe reported that the organization spent $41 million responding to a seven-week onslaught of tornadoes, floods and wildfires while raising $33.6 million to cover the costs. That was before a violent storm system blasted through a wide swath of the Midwest beginning on May 24. No single recent disaster – not even the cataclysmic tornado in Joplin, Mo. – poses a challenge on the scale that the Red Cross confronted after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. However, officials said the period that began on March 31 is remarkable for the sheer number of major natural disasters in such a short time span.

The Final Straw?

“It’s only a large U.S. event that can turn things around. The U.S. is the biggest insurance market with the biggest exposures.”

—Amit Kumar, an analyst at Macquarie in New York. The insurance industry took another multi-billion dollar hit from U.S. tornadoes in April and May, and analysts say an additional big hurricane loss could be the final straw that forces it to hike prices in order to preserve capital and rebuild profits. The property and casualty industry has been forced by stiff competition and excess capacity to cut or hold prices since 2008. The hurricane season runs June 1 to Nov. 30. Reuters

Topics Catastrophe USA Market