Latest hailstorm to have big financial impact in Colorado Springs area

A Colorado insurance industry expert says an increase in the frequency and severity of hailstorms will likely result in higher insurance rates for policyholders.

Monday’s severe hailstorm, which primarily affected the area between southwest Colorado Springs and Fountain, is the third hailstorm to hit that area this summer.

Carole Walker, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, said even before the summer hailstorms, Colorado ranked second nationally in the number of hail damage claims filed, and third in the rate of increase for those claims.

“It’s a new normal for Colorado,” she said. “More storms, larger hail, more damage. In this latest storm, we’ve already heard that up to half of the damaged cars will be total losses.”

Walker also said claims from each storm will be handled separately and can’t be combined, which will frustrate many policyholders because they will have to meet their insurer’s deductibles for each claim.

But there are some exceptions.

“We’ve hired somebody to come fix (our damage) but they haven’t started the repairs yet, thankfully,” said Connie Cyprian, a Fountain woman affected by the two worst storms. “So we’re not in for a second deductible. We have more damage on the same stuff that they’re already replacing. They were already replacing the roof and the siding. We had no new window breakage, so we lucked out.”

As of Wednesday morning, USAA insurance reported receiving 11,500 claims from the latest hailstorm, and State Farm reported 4,200.

USAA, Allstate and American Family Insurance have set up mobile catastrophe centers in front of the Home Depot in Southgate. Other insurers will follow.

“We’ll have three mobile centers,” said Matt Wilson, of USAA. “We had just closed our centers for the last storm a month ago.”

Walker advises policyholders to be prepared.

“It’s very important at this time of the year to know what your insurance covers, what it doesn’t, how much you have and what your deductibles are,” she said.

Wilson said victims should be willing to make temporary repairs and keep the receipts until claims are handled.

“Doing that will keep the existing damage from getting worse and costing more,” he said.

To that end, some insurers are helping victims by vacuuming shattered glass inside vehicles, and using plastic to seal broken windshields.

Walker said even before Monday’s storm, Colorado had $500 million in insured losses to vehicles and homes this year.

“We’re still in fire and hail season, so we’ll likely reach $1 billion before the season ends,” she said.